Chapter 27 Pythius's Collection <TOC> Chapter 29 Is She a Banshee
Translator: SumTLMan
“Isn’t Pythius a magic potion master? What’s he doing with this mechanical arm?”
Rayne took out a mechanical arm, then snapped on the intricate leather clasp and attached it to his right arm.
The mechanical arm was a speciality of the Omagh Empire and was a must-have for most transcendent power users. For lower ranked transcendents, these devices provide a significant increase in combat power.
However, this type of single-armed steam-powered technology is also expensive. The more sophisticated it is, the more expensive it becomes, even reaching sky-high prices in some cases.
…….
“It seems to be a glove type mechanical arm for the fighter sequence…”
Rayne wore the mechanical arm and moved around a bit.
Even without the steam-powered boiler activated, he obviously felt that the glove increased his grip strength considerably. The hydraulic drive system slowed down his speed by half but more than doubled his grip force.
Growing more curious as he continued playing with it, he fired up the miniature steam-powered boiler.
The boiler made very little noise, and the shaking sensation was almost negligible.
Clearly, this is a mechanical arm that was produced using very high technological means.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been apart of Pythius’s collection.
“Hey… How powerful is this thing?”
At the moment when the steam-powered mechanical arm started up, Rayne’s eyes lit up as the feeling of stagnation in his grip instantly disappeared.
This miniature steam-powered boiler gave the entire mechanical arm all the kinetic energy it needed to move dexterously. With even the slightest amount of force from a human arm, it amplifies the power.
Thinking about this, Rayne picked up a stone on the ground and gave it a light squeeze before crushing it into tiny little pieces with a “bang”.
“My grip is at least five times stronger than before… This mechanical arm is too strong!”
The more Rayne tried it out, the more he was amazed, and then he looked at the instruction manual that came with the box.
Only then did he realize that the mechanical arm’s glove also had a power storage valve, which could store energy for 3-5 seconds to deliver an explosive 700-1300 pound “Second-Order Steam Hammer”!
The hardened mechanical exoskeleton can easily block slashes from swords, making it both an offensive and defensive equipment.
On closer inspection, the mechanical arm is engraved with an inscription “Martz James, Marquis de Crescent”.
“Gee looks like a rare custom made item for some rich noble lord…”
Rayne couldn’t get enough of holding the mechanical arm, and more he stroked it, the more he felt that he had picked up a bargain.
The only downside to this mechanical arm was probably its weight.
After weighing it, he estimated the total weight was definitely over a hundred kilos.
This mechanical arm is heavy equipment that only transcendents in the power sequence are qualified to use.
But the massive strength bonus that the [Corpse Stitcher] magic potion brought Rayne gave him the strength that was no less than that of any first-order fighter.
Although it’s still a bit of a strain to use now, when the magic potion’s efficacy is fully absorbed, the weight will probably be just about right.
Equipped with this mechanical arm, he felt he could increase his combat power by at least fifty per cent!
“Hmm…?”
Just as Rayne was looking at the mechanical arm, he suddenly heard a “rustle” pass by his ears.
In the darkness… Something was heading in his direction!
……
The firelight can discourage most of the nocturnal beasts, but it can arouse their curiosity too.
For example, the “fanged rabbit”, an omnivorous beast!
With its doe-like curiosity, this kind of fierce rabbit won’t choose to run away when it first encounters firelight but instead decides to come in for a closer look.
Then, it sees a human and thinks.
Oh… What a tasty treat!
“Pff! With my luck, I shouldn’t have dreamed of getting a good night’s sleep in the wilderness…”
Rayne’s eyes twitched as he looked at the three pairs of red, eerie rabbit eyes that suddenly lit up in the darkness not far away from his camp.
He hadn’t forgotten that he had nearly died in the mouth of one of these calf-sized rabbits the first day he had transmigrated.
The most numerous magical beasts in the wilderness were these fierce rabbits!
There were two large and one small fanged rabbit, like a family of three. When they saw the human, the red glint in their eyes became increasingly terrifying, and with their sharp fangs wide open, they came rushing over to tear him apart!
Although an adult fanged rabbit’s intelligence is low, its bite force can easily crush a human’s skull, making it a deadly threat to even a transcendent…
Not to mention facing three of them at the same time!
In the blink of an eye, they had all pounced on him.
“Damn it!”
Rayne instinctively tried to dodge the attack with his thief’s stance. But the sudden addition of more than one hundred kilograms of mechanical arm weight on his body caused his otherwise light body to stagger violently.
In this moment of stagnation, the male fanged rabbit had already viciously gone in for the kill.
With less than half a metre of separation, Rayne could smell the stench of the beast’s breath as it opened its jaws.
In this moment of crisis, he unhesitatingly lifted up the mechanical arm, and it just so happened to cross into the mouth of the male fanged rabbit.
The fanged rabbit tried to bite off Rayne’s arm with a “click”.
But instead of biting down into expected flesh, it cried out in pain as it broke several of its fangs and looked as if it had been punched in the mouth.
“Huu!”
Rayne’s heart fluttered with joy and thought: This mechanical equipment collected by old Pythius is excellent. It had actually blocked the fanged rabbit’s deadliest bite attack!
With no hesitation, while blocking it, he simultaneously cut across the beast with the scalpel held in his left hand.
Unfortunately, the fanged rabbit’s fur was exceptionally tough and thick; it was like soft armour that had removed most of the cutting force behind his slash.
His first slash only cut through a little bit of fur and hadn’t caused any fatal damage to the beast at all.
And just then, the two other fanged rabbits followed suit by also going in for the kill!
This time, Rayne didn’t choose to avoid the onslaught but drove his fist into the female fanged rabbit’s throat.
The fanged rabbit also tried to close its jaws and bite down. Although it could probably easily crush granite with its teeth, it was no match for the mechanical arm’s special alloy.
Seeing this, Rayne didn’t take any chances but immediately grabbed the fanged rabbit by the throat and used the massive force behind the mechanical arm to grip down. This had made it easy for him to rip out a piece of its soft bloody flesh.
Then with a backhand, he stabbed the scalpel into the eye of the other smaller fanged rabbit beside him as it began bleeding profusely.
In an instant, the female rabbit, whose throat had been crushed, staggered back a few steps and made sounds as if it were choking on water until it eventually collapsed on the ground with a “crash”.
This fierce beast had actually choked to death on its own bloody froth!
“This mechanical arm is too strong in live combat!”
Rayne’s eyes lit up as he watched the fanged rabbit fall to the ground.
If he hadn’t worn this mechanical arm, even with his full level thief skills, he would’ve had to run away from facing these three fanged rabbits at the same time!
Because this kind of thick flesh, rough-skinned beast would simply be left uninjured from his slashes and can cause a fatal injury from a single bite. To kill one with Rayne’s current strength would require at least a hundred slashes from him.
Can he guarantee that he won’t get bitten once during the whole ordeal? Not to mention facing three of them at the same time!
Wilderness magical beasts, even the lowest-ranked ones, aren’t to be trifled with.
But now, he had actually taken one out with ease?
“My efforts have finally brought about a miracle… This path, this is the path to Heaven!”
Rayne felt overwhelmed with excitement, suddenly becoming a person who liked this kind of violent face to face conflict.
His thief skills couldn’t help him fight against these magical beasts, but the strength from the power arm can!
With a female fanged rabbit dead and a young fanged rabbit blinded in a flash, the male rabbit, no longer caring about its tooth injury, came charging wildly at him again!
“Let me try that feature!”
Rayne ignored the blood dripping from his entire arm and then activated the mechanical arm’s storage device.
He dodged one of the male rabbit’s lunging bites, stored three seconds of power, and then turned and blasted the male directly in the head with a single punch!
The miniature steam-powered boiler on the mechanical arm hummed, and the pressure that had just accumulated burst out with an explosive roar.
“Second-Order Steam Hammer”!
This is the strongest move belonging to the mechanical arm. With one mighty blow, the considerable pressure from the steam-powered mechanical arm’s indestructible fist landed on the rabbit’s head with a “crack”.
There was a “click” sound of bone fracturing as the strong bear-like fanged rabbit was knocked dead.
“Another one down!”
Rayne’s heart leapt with joy.
Taking out two adult fanged rabbits in quick succession had given him a boost of confidence.
He glanced at the completely intact steam-powered mechanical arm. He then glanced over at the small fanged rabbit not far away that had been blinded earlier with the corners of his mouth lifting in an increasingly confident arc.
…….
A few minutes later, two large and one small fanged rabbit carcasses were laid out and placed by the campfire.
“This family should be lined up all neat and tidy…”
Rayne exhaled slowly, looking at the rabbit carcasses and the roaring campfire, but then a thought popped into his head: If only there were cumin in this world…
Although it was a little scary, it wasn’t all bad meeting a family of fanged rabbits in the wilderness.
The fact that such a small, cunning beast was in the vicinity meant that there were usually no other large predators around.
However, Rayne wouldn’t have the guts to begin roasting meat in the wilderness. The smell of meat would spread for over ten kilometres and would probably attract even more terrors in the dark.
He buried the blood and planned to use the fang rabbit’s body as a pillow to sleep tonight.
At night on Ice Ridge Wilderness, the temperature drops below freezing. So, these three still-warm carcasses are the perfect bed comforters for this situation.
……
But it wasn’t long after that Rayne suddenly twitched his ears and immediately became alert again.
Normally, there are no other magical beasts near the fanged rabbit’s nest.
But Rayne felt that with his aura of bad luck, he would probably encounter something outside of what was considered “normal”.
“My luck can’t be that bad…”
Rayne weakly spat out.
But he wasn’t slow to react as he immediately pulled out his weapon and looked in the direction of where the noise was coming from with his full attention.
“Light on their feet, alternating bipedal movements… Could it be a small upright magical beast with two feet? What kind of creature could it be…”
Rayne carefully sensed the sounds and picked up a lot of useful information from its “movement”.
The footsteps were lighter than a fanged rabbit, or at least not coming from a large beast. After distinguishing these sounds, it was the only thing that kept him from immediately turning his head and running away.
The next moment, the shadow stepped through the fog and came within the range of the campfire’s light.
“A human?”
Rayne fixed his eyes upon the person and was surprised.
What he had thought was a magical beast was actually a human!
And also, a woman covered in blood?
Chapter 27 Pythius's Collection <TOC> Chapter 29 Is She a Banshee