Chapter 1063. Little Epsilon?

Where the first three days were spent on the finer, more intellectual arts, the fourth day was the prelude to the physical competitions. The day was coined by contests around physical attributes. Various races, tests of endurance and strength. Everything was for people to prove the results of their training and skills.

The atmosphere in the stadium was heated, even more than on the first and second days. These were the competitions people had been looking forward to. The animalistic competition of raw stats.

“Hey, isn't that the winner of the philosophy contest? What is he doing among weightlifters?” one of the noble visitors wondered out loud.

“You were here yesterday?” his acquaintance asked a little surprised. “Who do you mean?” he asked curious, nonetheless. A poet that also entered a competition of might? How intriguing!

“The muscular dude in the loose toga. Though I personally disagree with some of his views, his speech was really good. I didn’t expect that his muscles were not only for show,” his compatriot explained, pointing at the bug, bearded man, slightly advanced in age.

“Wow, who would have thought the winner of an intellectual contest would take part in this, too?”

“he’s not the only one, look at that demon over there, that is getting ready for the obstacle races?” he asked, pointing at a humanoid demon with slightly stretched proportions. It was very tall, with long legs, torso, arms and head. Only hands and feet seemed “normal”.

“That’s a bard who got second place in Flyting, yesterday in the evening,” he added when his friend found the demon in question. However, a different question occupied his friend.

“What is flyting?”

“It’s what you would expect when you hear the word poetry slam, but with real victims. The demons really dominated that one, although some of the Urthans were able to defend their honor, at least,” the noble gave his expert opinion and the excessive dissing that had happened yesterday in the evening.

“Tsk, maybe I should have come yesterday instead of visiting the village,” his friend lamented.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, you can watch the best offs later. I doubt you would have enjoyed most of it, except the flyting of course. I learned quite a few new ways to curse someone.”

Their conversation soon came to an end, when the first competitions of the day finally started.

---

“What do you think?” his words burst her little bubble and she returned to reality. Clearing her throat, she put up her front of a serious and unimpressed leader.

“It’s heavily damaged, what caused such devastation?” she asked, examining the thick, mostly molten, and burned, layer of non-conductive rubber coating that must have once covered the whole robot. Most likely an attempt to counter the Parrot of Doom’s favorite way of attacking.

However, Seth didn’t yet trust Joannia enough to reveal the hidden strength of Minas Mar.

“That is still inconclusive. My people found it at the far edge of the Unclaimed Mountains,” he explained vaguely.

“The Unclaimed Mountains?” the woman asked a little confused. Seeing her like this, Seth remembered that she and her people had been separated from the rest of Urth ever since the Apocalypse. With the expansion of Urth, they had grown even further apart than just time could have caused.

“The sprawling mountains in the southwest. After the rush to reclaim the No Man’s land, they were given the name because we, as the first ones to venture out from the original districts, didn’t claim them. Instead, many businesses tried to expand themselves out there,” the blacksmith explained readily.

“Ah, I think one of the scouts mentioned this. And this was found at the far edge of it?” she asked again.

“Right before the Borderstorm that separates us from the western desert,” she confirmed with a nod.

“Hmm, I always heard that Lambda was ahead of the other districts, could they have built it, but it got destroyed in this...Borderstorm?” she guessed.

“Possible, but unlikely. The storm is one of ice, snow, and wind. Nothing that would cause this. So, do you think you can reverse engineer it?” Seth asked, his voice calm despite the great interest he had in this. After all, this thing had battled the storm elemental for days.

If they could reverse engineer even just a part of it and he could integrate it into his golems, like they did with the Core Reactor, he might have been able to make even stronger golems, without needing a stronger soul.

“It’s too burned and dirty to say anything definitive. I will have to take it apart and clean it up, is that okay?” she asked seriously.

“You signed all the contracts, you can do whatever is necessary,” Seth gave free reign over the project. Of course, she didn’t do it for free. In exchange for her cooperation in this, Minas Mar supplied the fleet with fresh food and rations, for the time of their stay.

They also allowed groups of civilians to enter Little Gamma and spend time off their cramped ships. It was just an interim solution for the duration of the Pythian games, afterwards, they would deal with their settling at a Tree Station of their choice.

Until then, and hopefully even afterward, he would have an extremely motivated researcher, unraveling the mysteries of this advanced technology for him.