I managed to get sis and Natsume introduced to each other.
As for what I can do right now, the main thing is analyzing the recovered cyborg Potimus's body.
I left the vampire girl with
I sent Fermina back to the Demon King's castle ahead of me to prepare the follow-up work.
Once I'd gotten both of them situated, I entered the pocket dimension where Potimus's body was stored.
I began dismantling the Poti body that had been placed there.
The mood was like a surgeon about to go under the knife.
Scalpel, not really.
I didn't need a scalpel — I started carefully taking it apart by hand.
But seriously, what is this body?
It's a full-body cyborg, way beyond what I expected.
In my head, I'd imagined an elf-based body with bits of machinery embedded here and there, but in reality, everything except the brain and other critical organs was machine.
This is basically a Terminator at this point.
Even I'm no expert when it comes to machines, so I couldn't really understand what kind of functions all this stuff served.
I could sort of tell this part was for life support and that part was the power source, but the actual principles behind how any of it worked? Completely beyond me.
However — and this is a big however.
That was only talking about the machines.
The magical mechanisms built into those machines — those, I could understand.
After all, I'm a god.
If this were some simple Earth-made contraption, I'd probably have to learn mechanical engineering from scratch. But the idea that something made by elves would have zero magical elements? That'd be a scam.
If there really weren't any, I'd genuinely be in tears.
As I took the machine apart, I analyzed the magic inscribed within.
The purely mechanical components? Ignored for now.
What I don't understand, I don't understand.
Besides, what can pure machines without any magic even do? Not much to get excited about.
At best, a nuclear warhead would be the ceiling.
...That's not exactly a comforting thought.
W-well, I'm sure it's probably fine.
I'd like to believe they didn't stuff a miniature nuke in there for the power source.
I proceeded with the disassembly more cautiously than before.
I'd more or less finished taking it apart.
Hmm.
After analyzing the results, I determined that this body didn't have all that much magic layered onto it.
First, there was magic that reinforced the overall structural integrity of the body.
In Status terms, that'd be a defense boost.
Then there was magic that enhanced physical performance.
That'd be offense and speed in Status terms.
There were various other enchantments packed in too, but they were all either supplementary to those two, or things like enabling instant-cast simple offensive spells.
The only thing that seemed genuinely powerful was some kind of device mounted on the arm — it looked like it could fire the same laser beam the vampire girl had been wounded by. Unfortunately, that one appeared to be a fusion of machine and magical technology, so I couldn't figure out the details.
To put it plainly, the magic used on this body was nothing more than an imitation of the Status enchantment — the system magic that this world's inhabitants receive as a matter of course.
My guess is that this body operates outside the system's warranty, meaning it can't receive the benefits of Status.
That's why they went to the trouble of externally enhancing it.
That said, the degree of enhancement was quite impressive.
Attack power aside, when it came to defense, it might have reached something like 10,000 in Status terms?
Since I myself no longer receive the benefits of Status, this is purely speculation on my part, but still.
Not being able to use Appraisal really is inconvenient.
Well, the fact that the vampire girl could trade blows with it evenly already made it obvious that it had considerable combat capability.
Even so, that combat power wasn't a threat to me.
If there were several of these, they'd be tough for the vampire girl and the oni boy, and for an average soldier, even a one-on-one fight would be hopeless.
But for me or the Demon King? Still not enough.
If you wanted to take down the Demon King with these, you'd need tens of thousands of them at minimum.
As for me, no matter how many you threw together — useless, useless, useless!
*Ahem.* Of course, that was assuming these were the elves' trump card.
The technological level of this body, from what I could tell, seemed rather old.
The catalyst for my ascension to godhood was the ancient underground ruins of the old world.
The tech used in the robot army I'd seen there and the tech in this Poti body — the gap between them wasn't all that significant.
Had elven technology not progressed beyond old-world standards?
No, I don't think that's the case.
The proof was in the Poti body itself — it was old.
When I analyzed the magic that had been active on it, the activation period easily exceeded 800 years.
In other words, this body had existed for at least 800 years.
The brain inside — practically the only organic part — might have been swapped out over the generations, but still.
I should consider this an outdated model.
I didn't understand why they'd deployed it at this particular juncture, but it was certainly not the latest version.
They probably figured even this old model would be enough.
And honestly, fighting one of these was quite a challenge for anyone besides the Demon King.
Even if the vampire girl and the oni boy could win, for everyone else it was questionable whether even Mera could barely pull it off.
Some of Ku's subordinates might be able to defeat one, but I wasn't factoring them in.
Hmm.
Conclusion: the elves might be dangerous.
How much more advanced their technology had become beyond this was an unknown. But at a minimum, this was their baseline.
I didn't think I'd lose even if I got serious, but I might end up burning through far more energy than anticipated.
I'd really like to avoid that if possible.
My list of worries just got longer.