There was no more conversation to be had with the three a.s.sa.s.sins, as it seemed that it was taking up all of their concentration to maintain the forms that they had adopted for the attack.

This applied most to the reptilian, whose impressive transformation had actually been the perfect combination of a Fighter and a Mage Path.

Daneel had heard of these techniques which could utilize both Paths fully, and he had even dabbled in them quite a bit before. Even in the history of Angaria, the number of such techniques with high efficacy was limited, but here, he had just found one which was better than any in all the records of his home.

The system had recorded it perfectly, and after asking it whether it would have been able to do so if it hadn't been updated, the answer had made him very happy – it would have been impossible if that were the case, so feeling satisfied that he was reaping the rewards of the upgrade quite well, Daneel sat back and hoped that the fight would be tough, so that his companions would be forced to show more and more of their trump cards, all of which he would gleefully record and then dissect later, at his leisure.

Right now, as he waited for them to reach their target which was still a considerable distance away, Daneel idly began to study what he had just witnessed.

The technique was a combination of a Fighter path which allowed one to have the abilities of rapid degeneration and body consciousness, and a Mage path that could transform one's living cells into the perfect form in which the Energy stored inside could be shot out explosively, all at once, without damaging the one user.

One would not work without the other. In fact, the part of the Fighter path which handled 'body consciousness'(which basically meant the ability to split one's consciousness without harm so that each body part could seamlessly be controlled) had been theorized before, but no one had been able to achieve it.

Already, the data he was gathering was starting to outstrip all of the historical achievements of Angaria and even the Order, so deciding that he would stick to these three no matter where they went on their trip here, Daneel changed his focus to the target that they were quickly approaching.

From far away, it was only a vague shape that did not even actually resemble an eye, even though he called it so because of its function. At his present alt.i.tude, he could clearly tell that it was almost like a sunflower, with the parts that would have been the petals being spread out with a significant gap between each.

The entire thing was a dull grey color that was mottled with black patches all over. The central part from which those almost tentacle-like petals originated seemed to be faintly glowing, and right away, Daneel knew that that part must be the one which was seeing the continent below.

Slowly, it began to appear that he had been wrong – the sunflower a.n.a.logy would no longer apply, as in fact, the central part was oval, and the petals really were like tentacles that were bizarrely swaying in the air.

The moment he saw this, gooseb.u.mps sprung up all over his body, as he also realized something – the thing they were approaching… Was actually a living creature.

The more they neared it, the more this became apparent. It was clearly pulsing and moving constantly so that it could stay in place despite the buffeting winds that were present here, and at times, it even seemed to shudder all over, which almost made it seem as if it was breathing.

What it breathed in wasn't air, though, and every time this happened, the glow that he had seen before would grow more intense.

Just one look with his elementary vision exposed the fact that it was actually absorbing Energy from the air, and as he thought about it, he realized that there was definitely no other way for such a large being to sustain itself unless it was capable of directly doing this, no matter where it was.

The final details began to come into focus just when the reptilian spat out a few words inside the orb.

"We will be blasting our way in. Hold on to something if you don't want to get hurt."

More and more, he began to get the feeling that rather than arrogance, it was almost inferiority that was on display whenever the reptilian spoke.

Scoffing at this notion and thinking that he must be mistaken as he could think of no reason behind such a thing being present if he was right, Daneel decided to test out the system by asking it to take the most suitable action so that he wouldn't move.

An instant later, he felt his legs transform, and when he looked down, he couldn't help but raise one eyebrow as he was impressed.

Where his feet had been resting before, there were now roots that spread all around the floor and even the ceiling of the circular surface.

This was the form of the ancient Treemen, who had become extinct for unknown reasons even before the Empire had come into being.

They were a strange race who had been studied extensively by the researchers of the Order at the time. Even they had been unable to definitively ascertain the reason behind the extinction of these primaeval species, and the general consensus was that only the highest level of Energy on a continent could sustain them, so they could live when Angaria was first born, but with time, they had no option but to die out.

As they were such an ancient species, there was no way for Daneel to obtain a smidgen of their consciousness that he could use it with his Path to transform himself. Even though he had made quite a few improvements to this power of his, the prerequisite of the consciousness still remained, so what the system had actually done was directly deploy a spell recorded in the Order which was based around the study done on the species which were supposed to be invincible if they stood on the ground, as they simply could not be moved.