Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?

On the other side of a screen...

[Wait a minute...I just realized something important,] Springerdermain suddenly said aloud amongst his fellow kaijin.

At this point in time, the kaijin had lost their anxiety of losing track of their creator/master, because Logos and Pathos had more or less triangulated his position as being somewhere in the vicinity of a place called Papaya Town.

Not only that, but the twin curator spirits had confirmed that they could now more or less track their lord via the zakos he had just created.

Meaning that, for all intents and purposes, they were now closer than ever in retrieving their lord and repairing his jank connection.

So the fact that Spingerdermain thought it was prudent to bring up something he found odd about the current situation was a touch worrying.

As such, the reactions to Springerdermain’s sudden realization wasn’t exactly positive.

[Oh, what is it now? Do you think the Maestro is going to walk into a trap or something?,] Hurricroak groaned while acting as the group’s collective voice of complaint.

[No, nothing like that,] Springerdermain quickly answered. [I was just going to point out, doesn’t the Ringmaster still have the Key to Nowhere on him? Couldn’t we have just track that instead of waiting for him to cause a mess?]

[That...huh.]

As soon as Springerdermain made this observation known, the kaijin couldn’t help but to stop watching their lord loot the estate of some branch company and turn their focus towards Logos and Pathos.

The twin curators at this time were still performing a series of calculations in regards to strengthening their connection to Zhen Liu, while also planning a travel itinerary. Evidently, they planned to send the kaijin to go and retrieve their lord, manually...alongside some guests no less.

[Logos. Pathos. Quick question, did you two try to track down our lord via the Key to Nowhere before or after he went on a rampage without us?,] Nepeherage asked in a rather frank and mildly accusatory tone of voice.

Earlier, they had claimed that they had to wait until the [Chaos] concentration got thicker in whatever region of the world that Zhen Liu was currently stuck in in order to track him. If it had turned out that they could’ve tracked him via the magic key that was directly connected to the library, then the kaijin were going to be rightly pissed.

<Well, I guess now is good a time as any to tell y’all the bad news,> Pathos began to say while still focusing on their current task. <That was literally the very first thing we tried.>

[It was?]

=And the results were the reason why we started panicking,= Logos added while adjusting a few more details to the travel plans. =Take a look.=

With very little warning, a new holographic screen appeared before the kaijins’ eyes.

There was a load of text and technical warnings written upon the screen, but the most important part was a big red textbox that read two words that would send shivers down the spine of anyone even remotely related to working in technology or communications.

"NO SIGNAL."

The sight of this warning told the kaijin all they needed to understand about this situation...mostly.

[Wait, the Key to Nowhere broke? How?]

<=Dimensional energy surges stacking on top of each other,=> Logos and Pathos simultaneously answered.<=It got cracked after that whole thing with Olestenna, and got damaged during the warp ball incident. In other words, our lord can’t come home unless he physically walked back anyways.=>

Now understanding the full situation, the kaijin went from relaxed to worried again at the prospect of their lord being vulnerable and having only one Kaijin on hand to help him if things went sideways.

That is, until Razorstella pointed out something important...and Frosttusk added an addendum to her statement.

[Wait...the director can be quite crafty at times, can’t he just repair the key himself?]

[Only...if...he...has...the...right

...materials...]

That stated, nobody really knew if he had access to such materials or if he knew what he needed. As such, they could only do a few things right now.

[We’re just gonna have to watch him while we wait for a plan to come together...wait, is he even aware that his key was broken?]

...Speaking of him...

[Was all of that necessary, Executor? It looks like you gave them depression.]

’Probably not, but halfway through this fuck ass mansion, I discovered that my key home is literally broken. I think I can fix it, but I’m not entirely sure if melting it down and reforging it is an option.’

[Oh. Oh shit.]

’Lets hope these guys have something I can use...’

...

^Now with all that out of the way...would you mind opening this door for me, or would you rather I not shame you any further and open it myself?,^ Zhen Liu asked, actively ignoring the despair and rage in the eyes of the Cortez Grandmasters.

^Fair enough, do it myself then,^ Zhen Liu capitulated while warming up his arms.

It only took him a couple of seconds to physically warm-up and to concentrate [Chaos] into his fist. Once he finished the latter though, all of the humans present couldn’t help but to stare in his direction again.

^What the hell?^

^This energy...that’s what he used to pierce through our defenses!^

’So that’s what he used to break my seal...,’ Lythero thought to himself as he felt the weird energy radiating near him. ’Wonder what else it can do...’

^And punch!^

BOOM!

Once sufficiently charged, Zhen Liu punched forward and blew open the doors to the Cortez Company Treasure room.

Needless to say, the Cortez Grandmasters couldn’t help but feel incredibly insulted in this moment.

Turns out they weren’t even needed to open the door, they were just brought along to be humiliated.

Regardless of their feelings though, now that Zhen Liu had opened the door, he and Lythero decided that it was prudent to look through everything that was worth a damn.

At least, that was Zhen Liu’s plan. Lythero just wanted to take everything that wasn’t nailed down.

^What do you mean we can’t take everything?!,^ Lythero complained as he looked over the entire treasure trove with greedy eyes.^I thought you said you were-^

^I am, but we’re going to be taking their most valuable items. It’s kind of like the difference between a gold bar and a thousand silver coins. Both are valuable, but one is easier to carry and probably worth more,^ Zhen Liu explained while parsing through some of the treasures in the vault. ^Besides, your weapon skills pertain to swords, right?^

^Yes,^ Lythero readily nodded.

^Then does it make sense for us to take those spear type aether treasures?,^ Zhen Liu asked.

^...no.^

^That’s what I thought.^

On a massive technicality, every single item in this treasure vault was of use to Zhen Liu due to his ability to make kaijin out of objects rich in [Value] or [Cost]. Unfortunately, he couldn’t actually do that right now due to his inability to connect to the library.

To be more specific, an error message popped into his head the moment he tried to turn a Bronze tiered aether treasure shaped like a compass into a Kaijin.

...

|Warning! Warning! Due to the weaken connection to the Library, all Kaijin creation must be done on-site. All cores must be on the user’s person, all materials must be in the user’s inventory and all aether arts and formulas must be registered in the local storage archiving ring. Please proceed with caution.|

...

’Okay, I need to carefully select what I need for my journey back...or at the very least, I need to bring what I need to make a Kaijin...thankfully I don’t need to carry the scrolls and formulas with me too.’

The entire treasure room of the Cortez Company was filled with Bronze to Silver tiered aether treasures, rare materials that could be turned into potent weapons and medicines and a whole slew of aether arts and formulas that were all at the major Ethereal rank.

^Wait, why the fuck are there arts and formulas in here instead of an archive for others to learn from?,^ Zhen Liu asked aloud.

Maybe it was due to spending time around Logos and Pathos, but Zhen Liu had been finding the act of suppressing the spread of knowledge to be more and more detestable.

[Maybe they’re incompatible with the current group of warriors?,] Blazejudicator suggested.

^Because they’re greedy bastards?,^ Lythero answered.

^Hmmm.^

It didn’t take Zhen Liu too long to register all of the aether arts and formulas into his ring, and he had more or less picked out what he wanted from the treasures and materials.

However, there was one more item in the vault that had sufficiently roused his interest.

And that was the presence of something that definitely didn’t belong inside of a frontier treasure vault.

^Okay, I’m pretty sure that y’all won’t give me an answer for this, but why is there a chained up coffin in the back of this vault?^