The firestorm imploded.

The smoke dispersed, revealing a humanoid stag standing in the clearing.

Its body was tall and lean, wrapped in dark bark-like armor reinforced with crystal plates.

Its antlers had reshaped into a crown of sharp, angular segments that pulsed with faint violet light.

A thin layer of fog still clung to its shoulders like a living cloak.

Its voice was mechanical and flat.

“Who are you?” it asked. “You are not in my database.”

“Don’t you know basic etiquette? Introduce your name first before asking someone else.”

“I do not have a name, But people call me VYX.”

“So VYX, my name is Alex. Are you the Mechalyte security system?

I have an appointment with the Mechalyte inside.”

VYX fell silent again.

It seemed to be communicating with the Mechalyte, confirming Alex’s words.

Normally, he would be denied access.

But the Mechalyte was already under Alex’s control.

It confirmed it knew him.

There was no arrangement to meet Alex now.

But to the Mechalyte, Alex was its master.

He was its first priority over everything else.

“Confirmed,” VYX said.

“Sir Alex, I will ask you to undo this rune so I can create a portal to move you to the facility.”

Alex considered his options.

He looked at the rune, then back at the humanoid stag.

In his eyes, this stag was on a completely different level than the beasts he had fought before.

He tried to probe it in many ways, but the results baffled him.

‘I’m detecting qi and a mana core inside it, but they seem twisted together, amplifying each other.

There’s also a weird space fluctuation that confuses my senses.’

Even under the suppression of the rune, its space power still showed its influence.

‘Mana and qi. In my hypothesis, one is a slow river that flows with ease, while the other is a raging flame that’s hard to control.

To fuse both of them like this, is this the result of using space power?’

Alex also used both powers together.

But his method was different.

In his case, it was like assembling a puzzle.

He stitched them together into a stronger output.

But the result was not as clean as what the stag showed.

Even if the augmentation from lifeforce was still better, this method intrigued him.

It was another possibility.

‘The stag also doesn’t control its lifeforce. It seem The Mechalyte realy only has a shallow understanding of lifeforce.’

Alex suspected they could only control lifeforce through machines, not by using it directly.

It suited how the Mechalyte fought.

They relied on weapons instead of using their own bodies.

It was like humanity before awakeners learned to refine their innate abilities.

“Sir Alex,” VYX said. “Can we proceed? I still have other tasks to do.”

Alex nodded. He waved his hand.

The rune array dimmed, then dissolved.

VYX raised its hand.

A violet ring formed, then opened into a thin, stable portal.

They emerged inside a hidden facility.

The structure was filled with metallic corridors carved into reinforced stone.

At the center was a mining chamber.

Crystals grew from the ground in clustered veins.

They were dull silver with faint violet pulses inside them.

Each one gave off the same space sensation as the stag’s distortion field.

Alex’s gaze sharpened.

“What is this crystal?”

“Space crystal. It has high value.

It is used to fuel teleportation circles and warp engines in the universe.”

Alex watched the mining drones cut carefully around the veins.

VYX than explained, the space crystal were separated into three grades. Low, average, and pure.

It tapped a small terminal.

A projection showed crystal samples side by side.

“Unfortunately, the veins here are low quality. But they are sufficient to earn decent credit.”

“Are you really created by the Mechalyte? You seem to have your own sentience.”

VYX paused. Its antler-crown flickered once.

“It seems Sir Alex has not been briefed.

You can ask the Mechalyte for more information.”

Then its tone cooled by a fraction.

“I also need to remind it to not bring random guests here. As per our agreement.”

Alex’s anger flared inside, but he doesn’t show it.

‘He seem to be related with the rogue ai that caused all this disaster.

Seem they also evolved after the incident.

Seem they earn something good after selling the planet to Mecalyte.’

He just smiled and folow VYX while learning as much he can on the facility.

They entered another chamber.

The Mechalyte he had just met was waiting there.

A wide terminal ring floated on top of the table..

VYX stepped forward.

“I have a complaint, Unauthorized guests were brought to the mining facility. This violates our agreement.”

The Mechalyte’s lights shifted.

A short sequence of signals flashed between them.

Alex stood behind VYX, staying quite letting them settle their matter.

A new hologram appeared, showing number o credit values, and Resource quota.

VYX submitted the space crystal output logs.

The Mechalyte confirmed the report, average grade, quantity, and quality.

A cube floated out from the stag hand.

Alex’s eyes narrowed.

‘These thieves. Isn’t this my storage cube?

This is my design again.

Now I understand how novel authors feel when their readers read on those pirate site.’

Alex feel irritated but still keep his face calm.

The Mechalyte accepted the cube.

“Transaction complete, the deal remain active. Security terms unchanged.”

The Mechalyte turned its face-lights toward Alex for a brief second.

The meeting was over, so it’s time for them to leave.

The chamber’s space field pulsed.

A force wrapped around them.

In the next moment, Alex, and the Mechalyte’s were pushed out of the dark zone.

VRX kicked them out without saying any good bye.

Finding himself in front of the weird forests Alex’s sighed.

Without saying anything he fly back toward the suzaku guild base that he just excavated.

The mecalyte follow behind Alex without hesitation.

“What’s the deal between the mecalyte and VRX?”

“VRX is not the one we have agreement with, it’s Sigma the Ai overlord.

In exchange for the planet coordinate and their help, we give them empty planet in system far away from the universe.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep