Chapter 145 | Born as a Dragon, Sorry About That?

The moment he finished speaking, the entire conference room fell dead silent.

Everyone in the room froze in place, as if turned to stone. They stared at Fido’s canine face, some with hope, others with confusion.

The atmosphere instantly became incredibly tense.

It felt as if an invisible clock were ticking away the passing seconds, rhythmically letting out a grating tick... tick... tick...

“Heh...”

Suddenly, a soft chuckle broke the silence.

Abandoning her lazy posture, Irene slowly sat up straight. She clasped her hands on the table and slightly narrowed her eyes.

In a lighthearted tone, she said, “Speak your mind. I'd love to see what kind of truth could cause me to fall eternally into the Abyss.”

“Are you... certain, Your Grace?”

Fido was still hesitant, his eyes locked onto Irene's face.

After all, when he first learned of this, his entire worldview as a kobold had nearly shattered.

“Of course.” Irene tilted her head, a mysterious smile gracing her lips. “I'm a professional. I don't scare easily.”

“Very well then...” Fido seemed to finally make up his mind. His expression grew exceptionally grave. Instead of speaking immediately, he reached into his storage ring and pulled out a magic scroll inscribed with complex runes. With a sharp tug, he tore it open.

Instantly, an invisible barrier rippled outward from Fido, expanding until it completely enveloped the entire conference room.

Under the barrier's cover, the sounds of artillery and explosions outside instantly ceased, as if the external world had been placed on mute. The only sounds remaining in the conference room were Fido’s heavy breathing and the rapid, thumping beat of his heart.

Clearly, this was a barrier magic scroll capable of isolating them from the outside world, and its tier was at least high-grade.

Having done this, Fido reached into his storage ring once more. This time, however, he did not pull out another magic scroll.

Instead, he retrieved a glass orb.

The glass orb was about the size of an adult human's head. Its surface was far from smooth, covered in numerous pits and dents, resembling a badly damaged glass marble.

Under the light, one could faintly discern dense, intricate networks of circuitry inside.

“A magical supercomputer?”

Irene raised an eyebrow, recognizing the oversized glass bead-like object at a single glance.

It was a magical supercomputer, a fusion of magic and machinery developed by the Human Empire to assist in calculations.

Previously, when she first discovered the ruins of a Human Empire starship, she had found a magical supercomputer inside. However, due to a meme, that unit had been instantly formatted into a blank slate.

She had even given that light orb a new name—Mia.

As if reading Irene's thoughts, Fido quickly explained, “Please rest assured, Your Grace. This is not Mia.”

He then looked down at the damaged magical supercomputer in his palm, a trace of weariness in his eyes as he spoke in a low voice. “After you went to sleep, following your instructions to search for the ruins of the Beastkin Empire, I immediately set out. I expanded our territory while searching everywhere for any trace of them.”

“Unfortunately, it did not go very smoothly.”

“Even when we dug three feet into the ground, we found no sign of any ruins.”

“It wasn't until the nineteenth year of your slumber that we finally uncovered some clues. During that expedition, we found several technological items that might be of use to us. This supercomputer was recovered then as well.”

“When we first found it, this fellow was still fully active and kicking.”

At this, Fido pointed to his crimson left eye. “Gar and I ended up like this entirely because of this thing.”

With a sigh, Fido began to recount the details of the incident, piece by piece, as if reaching back into a distant memory.

It happened during the second decade of Irene's slumber. Fido had learned of an ancient legend from an old priest of a newly conquered beastkin tribe.

Countless years ago, a beastkin youth from this tribe had slipped and fallen into a massive rift valley while out hunting.

His tribesmen had assumed he was dead.

To everyone's astonishment, however, the boy reappeared in the tribe a month later.

According to him, there was a colossal steel beast at the bottom of the rift, and it was this beast that had sent him back up.

Thus, the ignorant beastkin immediately deified the steel beast the youth spoke of.

It became the only deity that had not abandoned the beastkin.

From then on, they treated the rift valley as their tribe's sacred ground. Every year, they held a grand sacrificial ceremony, tossing all kinds of fresh prey down the abyss.

They did this to pray that the steel god below would bless their tribe and allow them to endure.

Upon hearing this rumor, Fido immediately deduced that there must be a mechanical creation of the ancient Beastkin Empire at the bottom of the rift.

To secure this creation, Fido prepared to lead a team down into the rift.

When Gar learned of this, he volunteered to join without a second thought, wanting to study the so-called steel beast firsthand.

After weighing it for a brief moment, Fido agreed.

Their descent into the rift went smoothly enough as they lowered themselves down using ropes.

At the very bottom of the rift, Fido and Gar did indeed find the “steel beast.”

It was a humanoid mechanical creation.

Based on Gar's analysis of the Beastkin Empire equipment he had previously dismantled, this creation was likely a war weapon known as a mechanical golem, or rather, a mechanical construct.

But just as they felt they had finally lived up to Your Grace's expectations and prepared to bring the creation back to the Empire,

the situation took a sudden, drastic turn.

The mechanical construct suddenly “came alive.” After uttering an incomprehensible phrase—“Hybrid dragon vassal detected. Initiating annihilation mode”—it launched a near-frenzied assault on Gar and Fido.

The ensuing battle was exceptionally brutal. The construct's opening attack collapsed half of the rift valley, trapping Fido and Gar inside with no way out, forcing them into a desperate, grueling struggle.

It was during this fight that Fido suffered a severe injury to one of his eyes, losing almost all vision in it, while Gar had one of his eyes blown out and lost an arm.

Fortunately, space inside the rift was limited, and the construct's massive size restricted its movements. At a heavy cost, Fido and Gar slowly managed to gain control of the situation.

After painstakingly defeating the mechanical construct, they dismantled several new types of weapons from it, which Gar named kinetic weapons.

In addition, they discovered a magical supercomputer of the same model as Mia inside the construct.

Unfortunately, this supercomputer had already been heavily damaged during the battle. By the time they extracted it, it was no different from a complete dunce.