Chapter 217 - Return Continued.
"Come out, Amicus."
The shattered parts turned into sparkling dust and flew away with a gust of wind.
This was a disposable beast token, able to store one creature that was not contracted or belonging to someone else. It was used by beast hunters to capture and sell live beasts.
*CRUNCH*
*CRAAACK*
Dozens of trees collapsed under its weight.
*THUD* x4
Hao Xuan raised his head and looked at the massive shadow outside the formations before getting up and walking towards it.
It was looking left and right warily.
"I'm sorry, I forgot how big you actually are," he shook his head wryly.
The creature in front of him was about 300 meters long and 70 meters high. It was the last Amicus that was left on Poriverse's planet. (Read authors note for details)
Its viridescent skin was glowing under the moonlight. There were hundreds of thousands of small to medium-sized wounds over its body. Some had already closed up while others were still bleeding a greenish liquid.
It slowly turned its massive head and looked down at Hao Xuan with its four twinkling eyes, waiting for him to speak.
"As I promised, you're free to go," Hao Xuan smiled softly.
The first thing he did after leaving Poriverse's base was to go find this Amicus. It had been following Zeng Yu's group all that time, converting Yin Qi into spiritual energy so they wouldn't freeze to death and would have enough energy to be able to keep fighting.
Otherwise, there was absolutely no way for them to have survived a month-long siege on a planet without any spiritual energy at all. It was this kind-hearted Amicus that was protecting them through the shadows.
It was a being of heaven and earth that loved all living creatures. Its sole purpose in life was to make worlds more habitable for others by making them fertile, by opening new Spiritual veins in the earth for cultivation and converting one type of energy into another.
It did everything it could for them when they were there, and that was the only reason it incurred such heavy wounds.
As a creature of heavens, it also had its own abilities that allowed it to live a life away from danger, untouched by worldly affairs. If need be, it could spend its entire lifetime in the void and no one would even know it existed.
Yet it put itself in danger for a bunch of humans that wouldn't think twice about killing it.
This was why Poriverse was so intrigued by these 'Amici'. They were physically incapable of harming another living being, no matter what the circumstances. Thankfully, the undead were not living beings.
After leaving the base, he found the Amicus trying to hold back thousands of undead. It fought alone at the valley's entrance and kept over 70% of the undead out. If not for that, Zeng Yu's group would have been overpowered in a matter of seconds.
Hao Xuan found it and communicated with it in its own language. He told it that he was there to protect the group and would do everything he could to get them to safety, before asking it to come with him.
He told the Amicus of the Beast world and how wonderful it was. Bustling with life and energy. He promised it would be happy there and it trusted him completely. To the Amicus, the concept of Lie's did not exist, especially not to one like this that had never even interacted with another creature before.
The Amicus raised its head and looked around. It then closed its eyes as numerous blowhole-like openings on its back expanded to several times their original size and absorbed large amounts of air, water, earth and spiritual energy from the surroundings, making it balloon up.
Its injured body healed so quickly that Hao Xuan could see the wounds closing and disappearing with his own eyes.
This process lasted for about 30 seconds. By the time it was done, patches of ground were missing, the density of Spiritual energy in the air had lessened and the nearby lake's water had reduced by almost a half.
"Damn, and I thought Zhurong ate a lot," Hao Xuan scratched his head looking around at the environment.
The Amicus then opened its mouth and sprayed out a viscous greenish liquid with the same color as its own blood.
Wherever this liquid fell, small herbs sprouted out from the ground, numerous worms and insects crawled out of the soil and moved around merrily. The liquid that fell into the lake quickly dissolved and turned the water clearer and purer.
Hao Xuan was looking at the miraculous changes with his mouth agape.
'So this is what it means to be a creature of heaven and earth...'
The more he looked at it, the more he wanted it. But he had also made a promise.
When the Amicus was finished, it lowered its head towards Hao Xuan and rubbed it against him affectionately. Even he could tell that it was the happiest it had ever been in its entire life.
Unknowingly, a smile appeared on his face. He searched through the storage and found a locator beacon, "My name is Hao Xuan, it was very nice to meet you. If you ever need anything, anything at all, come and find me," he said extending his hand with the beacon.
The Amicus opened its mouth and the beacon flew into it on its own. It rubbed its head against Hao Xuan one last time before walking into the void, vanishing from sight.
Hao Xuan stared at the place it stood just a few seconds and sighed. How marvelous would it have been if he could get one of those?
He went back to the campfire and flipped the fish over before taking a seat.
"Um, Syst- wait, I still haven't given you a name. Do you have any recommendations?" he felt weird calling the AI just System.
"Negative," the robotic voice replied instantly.
"Hmm, how about....Baracus?"
"Whatever user decides."
"You're an AI so you have intelligence, don't you have any likes or dislikes?" he frowned. For an AI, it wasn't very human-like.
"Such functions have been turned off by progenitor."
"By Poriverse? Why?"
"Progenitor decided that such functions were not necessary for optimal performance."
"Well, turn on all functions. Everything."
'It's not like anything bad has ever happened from a sentient artificial intelligence right?' he thought to himself amusingly.
"Affirmative."
*Beep*Beep*Beep*
Three beeps came from the watch on his wrist, but nothing had changed.
"Are they on?"
"Yes," the voice replied, but this time it had changed from a robotic one to a male voice.
"So you're a guy huh?" Hao Xuan mumbled.
"I would like to be."
"....um, sure. Anyways, you have all the same functions as the spirit band right?"
"Yes."
"Alright, Baracus, connect to the network and download everything you can. Do you have enough storage space?"
"Yes. The storage is virtually unlimited."
"Great. Go through everything, find detailed information about what happened in the last few weeks. Tell me what's going with the war, current events etc."
"Got it."
A series of lights lit up on the watch.
Hao Xuan waited silently by the fire, tending to the fish.
Fortis, Black, and White that were running around the camp came back a few minutes later demanding the fish.
Hao Xuan cut it in three equal chunks and gave each of them one.
Both White and Fortis jumped into their own chunks of meats without any manners, but Black took one bite from his own and dragged the rest over to Hao Xuan.
"What? Is this for me?" Hao Xuan pointed at the fish, bewildered.
Black nodded before climbing to his usual spot on Hao Xuan's left shoulder.
"Hahaha, I already ate. Don't worry about me, eat this and play with your brothers, I still have work to do," he fondled Black's little head before putting him down on the ground.
Hao Xuan rubbed his hands in anticipation, it was time to go through everything he brought back from Poriverse's lab.
****
Authors Notes:
Also mentioned in CH:206, Amicus: "It was a massive lizard type creature with a wide tail, four limbs, four eyes, and rock plates on its head and back ridge. Its skin had giant openings from which it would covert energies and Qi."
pic: https://images4.alphacoders..com/115/115646.jpg