Ascendants Records Mankind Saga (A.R.M.S.)

WuYan followed the instructions from a monotonous female robot voice in his mind and entered the nearby forest in the east from the house. He continued to venture in the forest for a while and arrived at an entrance to a cave. The foul stenches coming out from the cave had made him uncomfortable and almost vomited the porridge that he ate earlier.

"Ugh….the stenches coming out from it are awful. Smells like shits, saliva and something rusted all mixed together. I need to find something to cover my nose."

WuYan searched his clothes and found a handkerchief inside the arm sleeve. With the piece of fabric in his hand, he went to pluck a few flowers nearby him and wrapped them up within the handkerchiefs before wearing onto his face to cover the nose like a bandit. This is to reduce the harmful stench from entering his respiratory but only flower fragrances when he is breathing through the fabric.

With everything prepared and the voice continued guiding him, WuYan made his first step into the cave. However, it was not long and only just a few steps into the cave, he had found an unfortunate surprise on the ground, probably left by the wild creatures living inside the cave.

It's a dead body that got mauled and mutilated till it became unrecognizable. Rats and countless maggots are feeding on the remains, further revealing the white bones and skulls within.

WuYan approaches the body then kneels with one knee on the ground to inspect it, hoping to get any clues from it. With extra care, he gently moved the almost torn off hand and the neck of the corpse to check for any more hidden scars or wounds. 

"Hmm, from the look of the body physique and the armor on him, this body must be a man and most likely a guard or military related. The condition is intriguing because some of the wounds are almost cleanly cut and without a rough tear on the skin. It's most likely caused by a sharp weapon to inflict this kind of injury but the fatal wound is the deep cut around the neck, severing his arteries that lead to massive blood loss." WuYan mentioned his findings to the voice.

'So, from what you had observed, you deduced that this is unlikely an act from a wild animal but a being that is able to use weapons to hunt their prey?' She asked for more clarification. 

"It's just my crude assumption. But beings that live in a cave and are able to use weapons? I couldn't think of anything other than a group of bandits that perform cannibalism." WuYan made his own daring hypothesis.

"Cannibalism? My recorded data indicate the meaning of cannibalism is a group of species eating their own species." She searched through her record and found the relevant data. 

"Yes, perhaps we will soon encounter them. All those missing organs and torn muscles are probably their doing." WuYan answered with a serious tone, preparing to face the danger ahead of him. 

However his assumptions were quickly overthrown when he saw a scabbard with a steel sword in it and a dagger inside a leather pouch that was still attached to corpse belt. This situation had troubled him with even more questions waiting to be answered.

"Why are the weapons still here and not taken away? Don't bandits love extra weapon loot?" WuYan questioned what he was seeing right now. 

WuYan unbuckles the belt with both weapons still attached onto it from the dead body.

"Your sword and dagger, I will be temporarily borrowing it. You will have my promise that I will come back and return it. Once I finish my job here, I will give you a proper burial. May you rest in peace."

After paying his respect to the fallen one, he fit the belt on his waist and pulled out the sword to check its condition. To his delight, the sword is still in mint condition with the edges sharp enough to cut enemies with ease and is also so pristine that he could even see his reflection on the blade. 

"The sword still looks new and barely used. Perhaps the enemies snuck up to his back and killed him by slitting the throat? Barely giving any time for him to react and defend himself." WuYan made another worrying assumption again after inspecting the sword condition. 

WuYan put the sword back into the scabbard then took the dagger out from the pouch. He inspected the dagger and found it also in excellent condition. It's made of stainless steel blade with a razor sharp edge, the dagger sharpness had impressed him even more.

"Both weapons quality are top-notch but why don't they take it?" WuYan thought of the question to himself again and looked at the dark cave in front of him. 

"I guess there is only one way to seek the answers to my questions."

After checking that there's no more useful item on the dead body, WuYan stood up and continued to venture further deep into the cave. The cave only became darker for each step he further walked deeper into it till there's no more natural sunlight entered to light up the path for him. 

Now, WuYan is completely blind in the darkness and must take every step with extra caution. Fortunately, the robotic female voice is still able to guide him precisely in this unseeable cavern maze through her telepathic communication. 

She used the pacemaker device in WuYan heart and amplified the beating sounds, allowing her to create a simple sonar technique from it. For every beat coming out from WuYan's heart, the sounds propagated outwards and bounced back when it hit any hard surfaces. With this method, she can use it to aid WuYan to navigate carefully in this dark cavern. 

In the midst of darkness, WuYan suddenly heard a loud and sharp gibberish voice coming from the deeper part of the cave. He then saw a tiny flickering fire light in front and was coming toward him. 

'This sound must be of that creature that I mentioned before. Quick! Find a place to hide.' She quickly warned WuYan after detected that the sound shared the same frequency of the creature that was mentioned by her. 

WuYan agreed to her plan and quickly searched for a place to hide himself but his surroundings were too dark for him to see. 

'Detected a crevice on your right. The size might fit with your body, quickly enter it to hide yourself.' Her sonar method had detected a crevice just right beside WuYan and she quickly instructed him to do so. 

Following her advice, WuYan touched the right side of the wall and felt a crevice that he could fit in perfectly to hide from the incoming enemy. The orange light from the burning torch had lit up the surrounding darkness as the enemies were getting close to him. 

Without any hesitation, he quickly entered the crevice to hide himself. It was at this moment, only one of those creatures were right beside him, WuYan was able to see his enemy clearly but to his surprise, the enemy was not what he expected.

"Dark green colored skin and small body size that only reaches to my waist. Bald head with pointy ears upwards. It's wearing tattered loin clothes and only wielding a crude stone tipped spear."

From the crevice, WuYan observed every detail of the enemy body. The enemy then turns back to return where it came from. With its face shown to him without knowing WuYan hiding in the crevice beside them had provided him a chance to memorize its face.

"Serpent-like yellowish eyes, nose similar to humans but much more pointy and rows of sharp but yellow decaying teeth. Is it the one that kills and eats the poor guy at the cave entrance? Hey, if you are listening and know about what those are, now is the best time to explain." WuYan whispered quietly to ask her about the creature. 

'Unfortunately, no. This is also the first time I met one and I don't have much intel about them.' She replied to his question. 

However, WuYan began to ponder on his own question for a while after receiving a 'no' answer. Although still uncertain about it, he felt the creature's appearance is very familiar to the one he knew from his world. 

"The overall appearance of that creature reminded me of that fantasy monster- goblins. If my assumption is true, then I must be more cautious and need to kill them fast." WuYan explained his strategy against them to her.

'Fantasy monster? Goblins? So those monsters didn't exist in your world but just as an imaginary race?' His answer had piqued her interest to ask him more.

"Yes, in my world there's only insects and animals while creatures like them are non-existent. I only knew them through fictional stories." WuYan answered in a whisper with a cautious tone while still being aware of his surroundings to not get caught by them. 

"So you knew all about them?" She didn't stop with the questions and continued to ask him.

"Can't say that I know all but mostly a very basic understanding of them. They are a cunning and violent species that kill and loot things from their prey. Even worse, with their carnivore-only diet, they mostly eat their victims alive due to their behavior." WuYan explained the goblin species behavior with a deep, serious tone. 

'I hate to remind you again but my power will run out soon if we don't continue to act fast. Time is burning fast but please tread carefully, my sonar technology has detected more of them deep down further.' She reported her findings. 

"Hmm….I remembered a media that teaches about slaying goblins. Their tactics, movement, mindset, behavior and more. Hey, A.I., let's test whether it works or not." WuYan spoke with confidence.

'What's A.I.? I would suggest not to but follow….'

*SWISH!*

Without letting her finish the words, WuYan quickly stepped out from the crevice and pulled out the sword from the scabbard. The clear sounds of it the moment it got pulled out from the scabbard and he quickly swung it to the enemy neck. Then came the sound of flesh getting cut and blood splattered to the wall. Although it ended in a messy state with the goblin head being completely chopped off from its neck, fortunately, it was done in a swift manner and didn't alert any more of them from the deep.

'Not the type to fully listen to someone from beginning to end, aren't you?'

Although the robotic voice spoke monotonously, WuYan could hear her express those words in a disappointed manner.

"Well, you said there's not much time left to waste so I decided to try it out. Surprisingly, it's true and works very well." WuYan replied with a smirk on his face.

'I can't argue with the first sentence but I would really recommend you to not go head on against unknown enemies since we don't know what it's capable of. You are my only aid to rescue me.' She stated his safety and importance to her. 

"If I die, can't you repeat it again by tapping into another body just like how you did in that dimension?" WuYan asked her whether the method is repeatable.

'That act requires a tremendous amount of power and my current reserve is not enough to perform it for the second time, plus I would need to wait for another perfect body for me to enter. Speaking of power reserve and not to be a nuisance, I would like to remind you again that we only have forty minutes left.' She reminded him of her remaining time again.

"Alright. Since these creatures don't pose much of a threat and if I can swiftly take them out silently, we will make it in time. Any estimation on time and distance from this point?" WuYan asked.

'If running, the estimated time of arrival to the target destination is twenty minutes but if walking then it should be around thirty minutes. If unfortunately encountered any hostile and after calculations for the worst case scenario, it would take us forty minutes to arrive.' She reported the time arrival calculations.

"Intel is well received."

WuYan swung the sword with a force to splash away the goblin blood that was stained on the surface before putting it back into the scabbard. Hen then proceeds to pick up the decapitated creature's head and stares at its lifeless eyes. At this moment, he has lots of questions still lingering inside his mind but unfortunately for him, he also knew that right now, he would not get any answers to it.