Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 611: Lab 16

The group immediately set out, keeping a rapid pace on their way toward Inner Lab 16. They were making good time thanks to the complementary competencies of Kenzie and Laviala, but Zac was still filled with anxiety. The only thing giving him some peace of mind was Kenzie's ability to almost freely contact their forces back at the forest, allowing him to stay up to date on the situation.The army had finished preparations for the outermost layer of defense around the base, but they doubled down on their preparations after hearing about a possible attack. They also increased the number of scouts keeping watch in all sectors under their control in case the Cartava Clan appeared somewhere other than through the gate.

An evacuation was already underway as well, with almost all non-essential personnel already having been transferred out of the Mystic Realm. Only some non-combat cultivators would stay inside the Re

"The space is normal here?" Leviala exclaimed with surprise. "How weird. Even our outer labs have grown a bit over the past months."

"It has to be an effect of the Dao of Space," Thea said with gleaming eyes. "Space has become relative."

"Well, it should be a good thing. It means the lab is fully functional, right? Our chances of finding something useful has increased," Zac said as he looked around the beautifully crafted work areas as he walked into the Laboratory, if it could even be called that.

It rather felt like he had entered the headquarters of some IT start-up that had way too much money to spend, with everything from manicured miniature gardens to what looked like an extremely high-end restaurant where every table was placed on a small moat in an indoor lake. It almost made Zac wonder if they had come to the right place.

“This is a recreational area for the scientists,” Leviala said with a dour expression as she looked at the opulent surroundings. “I guess they needed to relax a bit after experimenting on us like we were beasts.”

“Nevermind that,” Ogras muttered. “Where are the good things stored, girl? We need to get back before your family does something stupid.”

“This way,” the Cartava scion sighed as she led the group through the series of gardens.

Zac was wordlessly following along, but he did shoot an imperceptible glance at his sister who nodded in return as she summoned a couple of drones. They still needed Leviala to save time, but it was undeniable that a divide had been erected between them after learning what her clan was up to. So Zac had his sister and Ogras keeping constant watch over Leviala to make sure she didn't try something.

After all, no matter what her personal belief about who was right and wrong, there was no way that Leviala would side with Port Atwood if it came down to it, especially if the Zhix started killing her clansmen. They needed to double-check and triple-check everything she said and did, to make sure she wasn’t leading them into a trap of some sort.

Hopefully, Kenzie would be able to spot anything of technological nature, while Ogras was perennially suspicious of everything around him. Any odd movement from the native would immediately be caught by him.

They soon reached a sliding door made from the same reinforced glass as the glasshouse, and it automatically opened up when they approached, letting them enter a small containment chamber. A second sliding door opened a minute later, and the group entered a spotless laboratory. There were around thirty tables in the main hall, a room of about 300 square meters, and each of them was connected to a series of expensive-looking machines.

Most of the tables were empty, but the remaining ones quickly drew their attention. A number of different items were hovering in the air, some of them looking complete and a few others seemingly mid-production with the help of several mechanical arms. More importantly, spatial tears were either hovering next to the machines like they were locked in place, or fused into the machines themselves.

There seemed to be a few adjoining labs as well, the layout reminiscent of the glasshouse's side-rooms. While the others looked around with curiosity Zac's attention was drawn by something else; the fact that his old quest had been completed.

It felt like he had caught a lucky break this time as the only threat turned out to be the sentry robots, as the Cartava troupe couldn’t really be considered a formidable enemy. Now the question was why the System wanted to bring him here.

There were no natural treasures in sight, and nothing else that Zac felt was of immediate value. There were these weird machines hovering above the table, but Zac wasn't so confident that the System wanted him to take a bunch of Technocrat items considering its disdain for the Dao of Technology.

“What is this room?” Zac asked Leviala, hoping to find some clues.

“It seems this place has been turned into a mechanical lab,” Leviala sighed. “It is honestly one of the worse ones.”

“Oh?” Ogras asked, his eyes thinning. “How so?”

“These kinds of labs usually house various sorts of advanced machinery, which isn't really useful to cultivators. Sometimes we've found things that are valuable to Datamancers and our mechanical troops, but neither of those professions will remain in the outer world," Leviala sighed.

"So there's nothing?" Ogras muttered as they walked among the tables.

"The side chambers usually contain raw materials and natural treasures stockpiled for experiments. One can still find good items there. Valuable metals, race boosting treasures, pure ener-" Leviala said but stopped in surprise when Ogras turned into a gust of shadows, appearing in front of the closest door leading to a side chamber.

Zac glanced over and wryly smiled, but the smile froze on his face when he was blasted away by a shockwave of tremendous force without warning. He slammed into a table, but his momentum kept him going until he knocked into a wall on the other side of the lab. The shockwave also contained some sort of high-pitch sound that made him nauseated, but he quickly got up to his feet to reorient himself.

Only to see Leviala speeding toward the exit with one of the Spatial Machines in her arms.