"How far is this water?" I asked as I turned to 34, who was standing in the passenger seat while I was driving.
"We are drawing near. Do keep in mind however that the stream is not large therefore cannot be seen from long distances." 34 said in the refined manner she always did.
"So basically I should just shut up and wait."
"Precisely." 34 said, alongside what I could have sworn was a chuckle but it was so faint I could have easily misheard.
Right at that moment I was able to see the side small crevice in the distance. The MTV was so fast however we arrived in just a few seconds to which I stopped the MTV and walked into the main interior section of the MTV
after walking out the door to the MTV what I saw was a normal stream of water which the only notable thing was the lack of plant life around the sides of the small crevice.
Walking up I put my hand inside the stream, it felt cold and gave off a tingling sensation off my elemental resistance.
"Thanks for bringing us here." I said to 34 who had jumped out of the MTV alongside me.
"There is little issue helping others within this hellscape after all we all would be unable to survive alone here."
Walking back to the MTV I pulled out a pump, powered it on with my roh and connected the tube to both the pump and the MTV.
"Do you know how these generators work? I thought roh had no inherent properties and therefore could not be used as fuel of any kind." I asked 34.
"While it is true roh does not interact with normal matter strongly, to say roh has no inherent properties would be imprecise. Roh itself lacks a defining physical property but it displays similar properties to matter with any substance it is able to interact with, along with the defining trait of roh being shaped by your will and therefore inheriting traits from that." 34 said casually, as if just mentioning some cool trivia.
'Someone needs to teach her how to speak normally.'
"So basically roh can push on certain materials and you can use it to fuel abilities. Did I get that right?"
"Not precisely but its a functionally adequate model." 34 responded
-
A few minutes of awkward silence later and I received the sound notification that the water tank was full.
I packed up the equipment and headed back inside the MTV with 34 beside me.
As I sat down in the driver seat again I asked 13 who was on the computer behind me "How's the survey scan looking?"
"No cursed are roaming near, we should be completely clear tomorrow to spend the entire day in that facility again."
"Yay." 49 said sarcastically.
After starting up the engine I started driving the MTV back near the facility.
The MTV had to be parked fairly far from the facility since the radiation would cause issues with the MTV despite the heavy radiation protection.
The sun set as we arrived at our resting site.
34 left the MTV and disappeared without a word.
'She doesn't hate us right? Surely that's just how she is, at least I hope.'
It was time to rest none the less, I was glad to finally have dibs on sleeping first.
--
Looking at the door to the sixth section again I wondered just how long we would be in here today. We had completed five out of the seven sections we needed to go through yesterday. Though these sections would no doubt be harder then any of the others we had completed. Which was saying something considering how hard the fifth section was.
We had constructed a more thought out plan and the other group had gathered more materials for what we were going to be doing.
Last time when we had looked through this door we had seen much more powerful creatures which unlike the complete abominations before actually had bodies which weren't massive piles of flesh.
'Is why they are so deep in here because they are trying to get rid of the mass of flesh attaching to their bodies? Say for some reason that cursed when consuming another creature gain some of their flesh as if it was some kind of cancerous growth. Then much like radioactive therapy they are using the intense radiation to kill the flesh around their true bodies.'
I considered this thought for a moment but there were some glaring questions that arose if it were true.
Why do their bodies gain these growths?
Is that some inherent ability they have and if it is how do they deal with it normally?
Why do they consume so that they become these abominations and then risk they lives just to remove that 'progress'.
'There is some logic to it I'm sure, these may be insane beasts but they have intelligence.'
"You alright 4?" I heard 7 say behind me.
"Yeah just wondering a few things about the cursed. No answers though."
"I don't really care much about them, I mean we just need to get rid of them. That's all there is to it." 7 stated as if my curiosity was foolish.
In all fairness it is foolish, at least right now. I needed to survive any distractions could mean my death but despite that I couldn't stop the endless thoughts I had.
Our rest before we continued out clearing of this facility had ended.
Me, 36 and 7 were in front with a shield and spear made of ice, 33 was not alongside us simply because she didn't have another arm to hold a shield in.
34 would go lure these creatures one by one through the door then me, 36 and 7 would block their advance.
'36, 7 and I.' 13's voice echoed in my mind twice, once for each time I made the mistake.
I almost laughed at the absurdity of correcting myself for a mistake in my own mind with someone else's voice however not a sliver of emotion graced my face.
Continuing on, 13 and 49 would support us and 33 would do what she could. The seven of us all had our roles.
'Wait no its the eight of us.'
I looked back at 5 to see him simply standing there, no expression on his face.
'I'm assuming his curse has something to do with being forgotten or one of his traits do.'
I honestly didn't know what he could do, I vaguely remembered him helping somehow in clearing the first five levels but I couldn't for the life of me tell what he actually did.
The thumping of footsteps resounded from the other side of the door, and then 34 appeared coming out from a sharp corner.
The creature chasing her was some kind of four legged creature which resembled a kangaroo. The creature had a snout like it was some kind of predator and was snarling as it ran.
34 was incredibly agile and was dodging all of the attacks despite the superior speed of the cursed.
'I need to learn how to move like that.'
Just as 34 passed 36, 7 and I we tensed up and got ready to bash the creature back.
"3, 2, 1." 36 counted down, timing it perfectly to when the cursed would hit us.
All together we pushed forwards and bashed the nightmarish creature back and it fell to the ground with a loud thud, I was even able to feel the vibrations of the impact through the ground.
All three of us backed off, then eventually passing a slit in the corridor made from ice so that the corridor was narrow enough.
Once all of us were past the creature lunged at us then got stuck in the almost liquid ground freshly made under the cursed.
A cursed this powerful would easily be able to get out but instead ropes fell down on the cursed, with 33 pulling on the ropes to get the cursed in position with their head through the narrow slit.
Just as the cursed was about to break free from the rope and now hardened ground, 13 let out ah exhausted breath as a massive guillotine of ice fell down on the cursed, decapitating the horrid abomination.
We all let out quiet cheers while breathing heavily, partly from stress and exhaustion but mainly from the nearly unbearable heat which only felt worse because of the curse of the elemental resistance.
33 walked up to the creature and touched it. I watched as it disappeared as if it had never existed in the first place.
"Let's keep going, remember to repair all these as well. We are aiming to clear this today." 36 said in an uncharacteristic encouraging tone.