Chapter 161: Space Knights

After salvaging the ship, the three galloped non-stop. The fresh forest air felt cool on their skin as they moved faster.  A simple, wide grassy path cut through the familiar woods, and they took a similar path as the one Layla took last time. With Serene's guidance, their journey was much faster.

As an elf, Tristan and Serene have much less need to sleep, and apparently, the Space Knight Chieng has a similar advantage due to what he said to be the implants that were engineered into his body.

During their break, Tristan decided to take some time to know more about the space knights. He felt that in the future, he will definitely encounter more of them.

Having the blood seal reign over the space knight, he spilled all the information to him.

According to him, it appears that most space knights were the same as him. Most came from a planet similar to this one they were currently standing on. In his case, he was among the thousand from his planet chosen by the empire to join the space knights program.

It seems that the selection process was rigorous, involving a test of endurance, strength, and loyalty.

Apparently, strength was not the most lethal part. Even though the trials were hard enough, it was actually the enhancement process that killed most of them.

After passing the test, the recruits needed to survive 10 major surgical implants, both biologically and mentally.

The first implant was a secondary heart located around their torso. The heart serves to increase blood supply and heart pumping capacity, and also gives them higher stamina. In addition, when their primary heart fails, the secondary heart will serve a similar function to increase their survivability.

The second implant alters their bones, allowing them to absorb specific chemicals made to increase the size and strength of their skeleton. The process will eventually fuse their ribcage into a solid bone plate, and it was also why they were all larger than a normal human.

The third implant improves their bone marrow, making it so that their blood could be more efficient in carrying blood and nutrients. It also causes the blood to clot faster and form scar tissue, allowing them to heal faster from minor wounds.

The fourth implant takes the form of a machine attached to their brain. The technology used for it is similar to a modern computer, allowing for additional storage to improve their memory, and bypassing their need for sleep. 

The fifth implant was a filtering device on their stomach, placed close to where their esophagus meets their internal digestive system. The device would isolate inedible substances as well as neutralize poisons and toxins.

The sixth implant took advantage of their reinforced ribcage and added a third lung in the middle of the original ones, allowing the space knights to breathe in low oxygen environments, toxic gas, or even underwater by separating oxygen away from hydrogen directly.

The seventh implant was a relatively simple, but painful procedure that mutating their skin, increasing their resistance to radiation and heat.

The eighth modified their eyesight, making it far superior than a normal human's and allowed them to see under low light.

The ninth implant was shaped like a small box around the size of their auditory canal. It filters certain sounds, protecting them from sonic-based attacks, and stabilized their body making them immune to dizziness and motion sickness. Not only was it useful to neutralize some threats from the enemy, it also made them adapt better during the constant spaceflights they have to do.

The tenth and final implant's base were placed right at the spot where their nose and mouth met just before the esophagus, up all the way to a small nub on their nose. The implant would improve their sense of taste and smell, give them knowledge about chemical compositions of the food they ate while on duty, and allow them to track a target via smell.

Chieng mentioned that it was an honor to join the space knights, and his Grey Wolf unit is one of the best.

Upon hearing that, at first, Tristan felt some pity for him, as he was sure all these space knights were being brainwashed by this empire they were serving. But then realizing Tristan do just the same with his blood sealed, he can't really comment about that.

He had to admit that even with all those implants weirdly poking out of their skin, the things those implants could do were really awesome He starts to believe that this space knight was worth every drop of blood essence he spent. 

Among all the ten implants, what interested him the most were the ones placed in their brain and bone marrow. He thought those two were the reason these space knights have such higher needs of blood essence and such a low success rate.

Tristan grinned and asked about the idea of this 'mechanic' and how to use it to disable the other space knights' implant function and allowed him to grab more of those super soldiers for himself with a higher rate of success. Surprisingly, Chieng said that it's not out of the question.

After hearing all those information about the space knights, the next important question for Chieng was the possibility of reinforcements to come for them.

"We managed to send a distress signal already, but knowing how fare we are, it will take time for them to reach this place."

Chieng added that with both the Cursaac mission and the information of the Blood Elf, they should've sent a responder team and they could arrive anytime soon.

Personally, Tristan detested the idea of relying on these space knights, as he has no idea whether they would be more troublesome than the king later. But, a man always needs a backup plan.

Of course, his main plan was to be strong enough independently to resist all these threats. This journey was his first step towards that plan.

Finally, after two days of non-stop galloping through the woods, they reached Erantell City.