As soon as Quinn had come out with the robot above his head, the others immediately started to duck behind terminals, tables, and desks. They had all seen through the video feed, what it had done to the Wendigo’s body and they were all starting to panic, thinking the robot might suddenly go on some sort of rampage.
But, after waiting a few seconds, they started to lift their hands off their ears and peak over the objects they were hiding behind.
“What are you all so worried about?” Quinn said, with the robot now standing upright by his side.
Looking at the robot closely, previously its single eye on its head would be glowing red, especially when it was giving orders, but now they could see no such thing.
Although Quinn wasn’t a hundred percent sure, as soon as he said “No” he could see the robot’s eye colour dim as it deactivated itself. Even if it did start firing lasers everywhere, Quinn was hoping he could overpower it. Moving its arm and pointing the laser at one of the doors making their exit out of the place.
In all honesty, he was a bit disappointed that it didn’t start shooting lasers, because they still had the overall problem and struggle of finding a way out of the place.
“What were you thinking?” Layla said. “Did you want to keep the robot as a pet or something?” Layla’s heart was still beating fast, seeing as she was a little startled.
Ever since her change, her emotions were a little higher-strung than usual but, being in the strange lab didn’t exactly help things either. Now, instead, it looked like Cia was the one calming her down and giving her comfort, telling her to take deep breaths in and out slowly.
“There’s a few reasons actually.” Quinn replied. “First off, I was hoping to use the robot’s laser to try and fry the door open. I know it probably won’t work but we don’t have many options. The second reason is we have no clue how many trials they are, nor if it will even lead us to getting out of this place to begin with.
“What we do know, is Mr. Tin here,” Quinn said, slapping him on the head. “Has been giving us all the rewards, and I thought it would be a nice possible shortcut to the end. Maybe the last reward is a key.”
Approaching the robot, Logan was greatly interested in it. He got Quinn to lay it on the floor and stand nearby in case there were any sudden surprises. As he went to place his hand on top of it, Logan hesitated for a second.
The Fear had gotten to him, the fear of failure. Perhaps, just like with everything else, there was nothing he could do.
His hand stayed a few inches above the robot’s chest shaking, and Quinn noticed this too.
“What’s wrong?” Quinn asked.
“What if I can’t do it?” Logan said.
“Does that matter? It’s not like any of us could do better. Don’t you want to be better than Richard Eno?” Quinn asked. He had been around Logan long enough to know what spurred him on, and he needed a push to get back to his usual self. “Well here’s your chance right. Everything in here belongs to him and it seems like you’ve already given up. You never thought it would be so easy as to just use your ability to beat him right?”
Thinking about Quinn’s words, he knew he was right. For the first time ever, his ability hadn’t worked on a machine and it had completely startled him, but others who didn’t have this ability of his, still went on to do great things in the past. Was he nothing without his ability? No, he wasn’t that type of person.
Placing his hand on the metal robot, he waited, but just like the terminal, he was unable to communicate with it. Although this time there seemed to be no response at all.
If he couldn’t control it, then there were other ways of doing things. Using his spiders they started to form Logan’s tool glove over his hand, and he got to work immediately, determined to prove that he could do something.
‘If Richard Eno was able to make something like this, then I should at least be able to dismantle it!’ Logan thought.
Unlike the terminal, if they were to dismantle it, it would give no such rewards. The software was the brains behind the operation on that. But here Logan could do work with his own two hands.
The others waited patiently, not wanting to make a sound so as to not disturb him, until finally.
*Click
After a few minutes, a clicking sound was heard and the front panel had finally opened. Inside, five different compartments could be seen. Slowly, one by one Logan took them out and laid them on the floor next to the robot for the others to see.
He had separated the items on the floor according to how he had found them inside the robot.
The first one was a single syringe and nothing more. The second compartment was completely empty. The third held a syringe and three red balls. The fourth, a syringe and five red balls, and the fifth, another syringe with five red balls.
Using his Inspect skill, Quinn could tell the balls were the same as before, only some of them gave different effects. One of the new ones he could see was a way to permanently increase one’s stamina. The more he thought about what the balls were able to do, the more Quinn started to relate it all back to his system.
The balls were essentially a replacement for his different blood types. As for the syringes, they all had the same effect as the one Quinn had taken at the beginning of the second trial.
“I think it’s safe to assume why the second compartment was empty. That’s probably due to Quinn completing the second trial. The other compartments must be the rewards for the next three trials, making five in total. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to help us with our problem of getting out of here.” Logan said. “But Quinn, are all these balls the same as the others?”
“Kind of.” Quinn replied. “Some of them have different effects. Speed, strength and stamina, as for the green liquid effect, it’s only temporary. It allows for a power boost for an hour. Although I have to be honest with you guys, the system revolves around me. Everything it tells me is based on what effect it will give me if I consume it.
“So I don’t know if it will have the same effect on you, or if there are even side effects for you guys.”
Grabbing the items, Logan placed it into one of the many special boxes he had brought along with him from his bag, and placed them all inside for safe keeping. “I think it’s best if I take these for now. At some point perhaps I can look into how it will affect us, by that I mean the humans of the group… sorry Layla.” He said, looking at the small little bumps on her head.
Unsure whether or not the rewards were worth it or, Quinn’s quick-thinking plan had helped them, once again they were stuck in the same scenario as before.
Looking ahead at the six different doors, he started to wonder if there was a similar robot behind each of them. The Wendigo had given him a good amount of exp, and if he was to complete the trials, fairly this time, in the other rooms in turn, they would get the other rewards. They would give more green liquid as well as what Quinn would now refer to as Blood Pills.
In a tough pinch, the green liquid could be the turning point on whether or not he would win a fight in the future.
Perhaps, completing the trial and killing all the Wendigos would be enough exp to even level him up to the next stage.
‘Trials One and Two were quite easy. I wonder if Trial Three would be similar. Would they all just increase the amount of creatures I have to face?’ Quinn thought. ‘If the fifth trial was just defeating five at one go, it would be a pretty easy job with his shadow and blood abilities to deal with them.’
Somewhere above the laboratory was a large, dark space. Not a single light source could be seen, but the sound of growling and howls was constantly heard. Inside the Wendigos would consistently and aimlessly wander around. Some didn’t move at all while others bumped into each other as they walked past.
Aggressive creatures but no need to be aggressive towards each other.
But, in the corner of the large dark space, a pile of pale white bodies could be seen. However, they weren’t human bodies. On top of the mound, it was too dark to see but a figure sat on top of it. The sound of chewing could be heard, then suddenly the chewing had stopped and another body was thrown onto the pile.
One of the Wendigos who continued to walk around, started to hover near the large pile of bodies. A few seconds later, it had disappeared and the chewing noises could be heard again.
*****
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