Second Genesis

"... You can let go of my hand now..." Amunet whispered while the two of them were still somewhat in shock.

Grey slowly did so, but his eyes were still trained on the witch. He had heard the words, and they even made sense, but he wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to go after that monster.

By the same token, though, this might very well be their only way out. Clearly, there was no exit waiting for them out here. At best it was a chance to use a few guerrilla warfare tactics.

If they could freely enter and exit the vampire lair, then maybe they would be able to slowly kill them all until there was none left.

But they had barely escaped this time while the vampires weren’t ready. They were bound to be more than ready this time and who knew how large the lair was and how many there were?

Grey also seemed to be the only one who could confidently weather the illusions, and while Amunet might finally unlock that ability after a few more attempts, there was still the whole stamina issue.

"How do you want me to help?" Grey finally said.

Esmeralda smiled. "In the only way you can, of course," then she slowly raised her finger to her eye. More accurately, her milky white blinded eye.

Grey looked at it, but didn’t quite understand for a bit. Then he had a thought that baffled him.

"You want me to build you a new eye?"

Esmeralda’s smile brightened.

Grey was baffled. He had only built one mech before, and in terms of how important the jaw was to the body, it was probably the easiest thing he could have built. In fact, the more he thought about it, the less of an exaggeration he felt that was.

All it had to do was hinge and clamp down.

He didn’t have to have any knowledge of mechs at all to know that building an eye wasn’t even remotely as simple. And even if he felt he had the skills, he had neither the blueprints nor the materials.

However, there was something exceptionally dangerous about Esmeralda’s smile right now.

Everything about the woman screamed demure and calm. Her voice was gentle, her beauty—even aside from the scars that marred half her face—was refined and elegant. She dressed modestly and even now, she didn’t seem like she was demanding anything from Grey. In fact, she was only asking.

But Grey’s senses kept blaring warning signals at him.

His hand subconsciously reached back and touched a pair of frilly pink panties tucked into his waistband.

He really wasn’t imagining it.

Back when he first met Stella face to face, he had also felt that he could somewhat read her. And now, that feeling was acting here as well.

He had no idea why it was working without actually putting them on. But it seemed the skin to skin contact was enough for a small piece of the item’s ability to kick into effect.

This witch wasn’t an ally. Not completely.

And she was no less dangerous than the vampire pimp she had dared to storm into the castle of.

No. She was probably more dangerous.

Grey took a deep breath and exhaled. While she was still pretending to be an ally, it was best that he take advantage of it.

"I can help you with this task but I have certain conditions." Grey said.

Esmeralda’s smile didn’t falter. "Of course. I would never ask a craftsman to help me for free."

Grey nodded. "The materials must be provided by you. Three sets of them. The blueprint will also need to be provided by you. The mech that I create for you can also not be beyond the Proving Class. And I would also like you to answer three of my questions as payment."

Honestly, Grey had no idea if he was pushing things too far—especially the Proving Class part.

This woman was powerful. Grey didn’t know how powerful, but she was certainly beyond the Proving Class. The pressure she gave off was even greater than a certain holy knight captain, and he had been two levels beyond the Proving Class.

Grey didn’t even know the name of the Class beyond Vector. That was how powerful this woman was.

And yet, what he didn’t expect was for the eyes of the woman to light up in delight after this.

Grey could tell from the subtle waves coming from the frilly pair that she was truly happy. What reason could she possibly have to be so happy?

The problem was that Grey had no idea what he had just agreed to. Should he have asked for more compensation?

Esmeralda had never been looking for an eye of her Class level. Prosthetics were the most difficult class of mechs to craft, bar none. Grey’s iron jaw didn’t even count as a prosthetic, it was layered onto his real jaw and used the structure of it to solidify itself.

A Prosthetic Mech entirely replaced a body part. What made them so difficult was the fact that unlike normal mechs, rather than just tuning to an existing Neural Frame branch, it had to be an extension of one’s Neural Frame branch.

This was orders of magnitude more difficult.

Esmeralda’s blinded eye limited her a lot not just because of the blindness, but because the root of the blindness was the destruction of the Neural Frame branches in that part of her face.

This stopped her from being able to use some of her strongest Mind Combat and Enhancement Abilities, limiting her to just 30% of her peak strength. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Even if it was just a Proving Class prosthetic, Esmeralda was confident in limiting the flow of her Neural Frame enough to adjust. She wouldn’t return to 100% of her strength, but 50% wasn’t impossible.

50% would be enough for her to kill Valdris... with a little help, of course.

"I agree. I have everything prepared already. Please follow me."

Grey hesitated and then looked at Amunet.

It was just a brief instant, but he felt the murderous wave come from Esmeralda. If she thought he was bluffing her, there would be hell to pay.

But Grey hid his anxiety and nodded to Amunet before following after Esmeralda.

"She will come too, of course. If you stay here, the Dark Kin will find you and that end result will not be kind." Esmeralda said with a pleasing smile.

’Well, there goes that chance.’ Grey thought to himself. ’This woman is definitely dangerous.’