Book 3 Chapter 6.2 - Long Journey
Even though a prickling pain could be felt from his fingertip, O'Brien didn't seem to mind it at all and insteads carefully experienced this pain. The pain brought by an injury of powerful radiation was in a class of its own. The floating flower originally also had numbing properties, but O'Brien's perception mode was different from everyone else's. As long as there were changes that took place on his body, it would always bring about a different degree of pain, so numbing on his body would only bring about even more pain. For O'Brien, the switch to his perception mode was a completely new world, a new way to experience the mysteries of the world.
This ability was one of the Arthur family's secret inheritances, an ability only those with the Arthur bloodline could obtain. As for the genetic code for activating this ability, it was a mystery even to this day. Even with all the accomplishments in genetic research in this present age, this was still a mystery that could not be deciphered.
Apart from perceptional mode switch, the Arthur family had many other powerful abilities that were not on the dragonriders' list. There were even more formulas that were currently being researched within three laboratories equipped with top level facilities and personnel. As one of the three great influential families, apart from having abundant supply reserves and perfectly maintained properties, the Arthur family also had entire sets of ability formulas suited to the family's bloodline. As for the financial ability to purchase top level equipment, the Arthur family was even more so not lacking when compared to any other family. This was the deep backing accumulated over many years, not something a family like Fabregas that suddenly made it big in recent years could make up for.
O'Brien wasn't opposed to the idea of using the family's wealth and technology unlike a few smug and self-righteous idiots. He carefully researched and compared what type of assistance he could draw from the family to increase his own strength. For the sake of gaining an even more comprehensive control over the family, O'Brien even began to completely intervene with the family's science and technology budget distributions. For most families' younger generation, this was a completely dull and uninteresting action, one that was a pure waste of time.
Subordinates appeared one after another, busily completing their tasks in a nervous but orderly manner. Several individuals completely covered in protective gear surrounded the strange beast that fell to his death. They constructed a simple laboratory platform and arranged various portable instruments. Under their excellent skills, the strange beast was quickly dismembered and turned into thousands of photographs and specimen before being categorized and stored away. A sea of data, through all types of devices, was stored into the portable intelligence systems.
A few others were busily picking various plant specimens. One fellow even assembled a two meter tall drill machine, using it to drill into a nearby ancient tree's trunk to extract samples. For these technology madmen, this strange forest was no different from an unrestricted treasury!
Around the technical staff scattered many powerful elite personnel.Their defensive gear were much weaker than that of the technical staff, to the extent where there were a few who, just like O'Brien, wore combat suits that didn't have any defensive capabilities. Their uniforms were all quite thin, because the frigid winter winds weren't that big of an issue for them. Most of them had an inconspicuous trident symbol on them; this was the symbol of Arthur family's armed forces, Poseidon's Trident.
O'Brien's ideas for the family's military were different from what Persephone had planned. The Trident of Persephone's era were all nurtured by the family themselves, while O'Brien didn't refuse the idea of recruiting powerful mercenaries from outside the family. Of course, they still had to undergo a strict and long process of investigation. He would similarly accept the outstanding and loyal members of Trident as his own subordinates. It was worth mentioning that even though as a result of the encouragement for this organization being much greater than in Persephone's era, the army's members becoming much more mixed, O'Brien didn't worry too much about this. He believed that when a powerful and quickly growing leader was in charge, those that harbored ill will wouldn't dare to act recklessly. He also believed that he himself was this type of leader.
The one in charge of the technological team walked over to O'Brien's side and said, "Your distinguished self, we've already obtained this mutated beast's basic data. What is rather shocking is that from its brain composition and activity, it should possess intellect equivalent to a seven year old child. This means that their race may very well already possess the basic outlines of a society, as well as their own primitive language."
"Properly collect it and send its body back. We probably won't encounter a second one." O'Brien gave a simple order. This was a rarely seen intelligent mutated creature, one that possessed high research value. However, O'Brien didn't seem as happy as that technology chief. He only raised his head, gazing into the sky where thousands of flowers floated about as if he was thinking about something.
"Your distinguished self, should we continue deeper? This forest seems extremely dangerous." The technology chief carefully asked. The numbers on the instrument he was carrying were already reaching a critical level, the red jumping digits especially striking. This forest that was immersed in this beautiful scenery was actually filled with dense radiation. If the defensive suit he wore was damaged in the slightest, then he would forever remain here, becoming nourishment for this forest. Only Combat Domain ability users had enough immunity, or other special individuals like O'Brien who could easily maintain a defensive force field for an entire day had the qualifications to stay here without any defensive equipment.
O'Brien casually placed his hands into his pockets, saying indifferently, "Of course we're going deeper. I have a feeling that there should be highly intelligent creatures living here. Our current goal is to bring one back, preferably alive."
The technology chief's face became a bit pale, but of course, he wouldn't show any doubt towards O'Brien's decision. In his eyes, those extremely beautiful floating flowers were no different from highly explosive bombs. Just from the mutated creature that dropped down, he could tell that apart from the intelligent creatures O'Brien was talking about, this forest was a death trap for almost every other creature.
After the strange beast's corpse was properly dealt with, the team once again assembled behind O'Brien, awaiting his next orders.
O'Brien suddenly laughed and said, "It seems like our luck really isn't bad. We don't have to go that far." Just as he was speaking, four valiant individuals from Poseidon's trident simultaneously sensed something, raising their heads and looking deeply into the vines and branches that flickered with all types of brilliant colors.
The forest looked no different from how it did a moment ago, but even the subordinates that didn't detect the enemy yet could feel a heavy weight crushing down on their minds. Their breathing even became a bit difficult.
A light drip sounded. Then, the whistling sound of energy levels rising sounded. Almost all of these subordinates knew that this was a sign of machine cannons storing energy. These Poseidon's Trident elites carried class five experimental model rapid-fire machine cannons. Their 20mm caliber wasn't that great, but with magnetic and energy fields assisting in the dissipation of heat and stabilizing the weapons' bodies, the power of these would be more than 40% greater than ordinary rapid-fire machine cannons. This was also one of the weapons used to deal with all mutated creatures.
Even though they were surrounded by unknown enemies, a faint smile still appeared on O'Brien's face. He spread out his right hand, and then several crystal fragments appeared, reflecting all different colors under the radiance of the forest. The ice crystals shot through the sky, flying faster the further they went. In the blink of an eye, they disappeared into the endless glowing lights.
Several loud and clear ka cha sounds rang through the air. Five enormous chunks of ice suddenly appeared between the interweaving vines and branches! The heavy chunks of ice immediately tore through the vines below them, falling to the ground with rumbling sounds. As they fell, the surface of one chunk of ice suddenly began to crack, and then it exploded. An ash blue figure leapt out from within before quickly disappearing into the branches and leaving. The other four chunks of ice dropped down, heavily smashing down on the ground in front of O'Brien's body. They all shattered, and four human shaped creatures with ash blue skin dropped out. After being frozen by extreme cold, and then suffering such a heavy fall, it seemed like the injuries they received weren't light.