“Mom, Pickle Berry wants to spend some time with you while I am away,” Klaus said, smiling at the little snake girl who clearly said nothing like that.
Pickle Berry pinched his hand, but she couldn’t protest.
The only reason Klaus said that was because of the mischief Pickle Berry was cooking up with her bestie, Amelia. She clearly had something going on with the next Phoenix of Earth, but she wasn’t speaking.
Klaus asked, but she kept her lips tight.
So knowing she couldn’t handle another makeover from his cheerful mom, Klaus made sure she stayed with her while he and Queen Lunara went to meet the Engineers.
“I clearly said nothing like that, but I will be happy to spend some time with you, Mother,” Pickle Berry said, knowing she couldn’t break Klaus’ mom’s heart, so she accepted the offer with a heavy heart.
‘I will get you, big brother. It won’t be today or tomorrow, but I will get you,’ Pickle Berry used the connection between her and Klaus to transmit her pain and promised revenge.
<Enjoy the time with my dear mother, Pickle Berry. I will come to pick you up when I am done with my business.>
Klaus smiled and planted a kiss on her cheek before leaving the Palace of the Moon Borns with Queen Lunara.
“You are wicked, Klaus. We both know your mother won’t let her sleep until she changes her hairstyle hundreds of times,” Queen Lunara said, making Klaus smile.
“She will be fine.” Pickle Berry most definitely would get back at him. But he knew she wouldn’t want to spend time away from his mother.
Though his mom could be mischievous sometimes, Pickle Berry and she had great chemistry, so she wouldn’t make things hard on her.
“Tell me more about these Engineers,” Klaus instead chose to change the topic, so he asked while boarding a vehicle that would take them to the military facility where the Engineers were working.
“They are two of the most brilliant minds in the world. And yes, the world includes Earth and the Moon. During the early days of the apocalypse, had it not been for them, we would have lost more than half the population of the Moon Borns.
They are twins, a male and a female, and while I would love to tell you what they are good at, you will have to see for yourself. The last time I tried learning about them, my mind couldn’t handle it.
They are brilliant and sassy to those whose IQ is not up to standard.
Please don’t give them an excuse to test your IQ. While they are brilliant, their EQ is very low, so they can’t process things like emotions well. They might hurt your feelings without even knowing it.
But aside from that, they are two of the brilliant minds you’ll come across.”
Klaus just smiled.
“I spent a couple of weeks with three nerds, so I think I will be fine.” His time with the Three Nerds back in Stone Valley taught him a lot, so he most definitely wouldn’t mind spending a couple of hours or a day with these two.
The vehicle took just 15 minutes to arrive at the facility.
The moment they alighted, Klaus wanted to ask how they were able to build the colossal structure he was now standing at the entrance of.
They couldn’t have possibly built that within a couple of weeks. The structure would take years to build.
“Don’t be surprised. Those two created a shrinking tech that allows them to transport their lab here. It was like holding a handbag,” Queen Lunara said, scanning her badge.
The gate opened for them to enter. The moment they did, everyone in sight bowed when they saw Queen Lunara. She waved them at ease and then led Klaus through the large base, where everyone was in a military uniform.
Before Klaus could even ask, Queen Lunara gave him an answer.
“Every last Moon Born is a warrior, so even the Supermarkets have uniforms. These are all specialized armors created by the engineers and designers.
We like to be alert always. You never know when danger will come knocking.”
Klaus was impressed by learning these details about the Moon Borns. They were indeed capable and much more disciplined.
He saw that during the missions. He saw the difference between the Overlords and the Grand Elders. Even he saw the difference between his team and the Lycos team.
On one hand, the condition the Moon Borns found themselves in made them much more powerful and experienced than the humans.
On the other hand, their population was also limited, so they made it a must for every last Moon Born to have military training.
This was to make them competent and ready to at least be able to handle themselves during evacuations. They wouldn’t want to carry extra baggage when they are evacuating for their lives.
After moving through the base for a few minutes, they arrived within a couple of meters of a large building that Klaus could tell was made from perhaps the strongest material he had ever seen.
Standing at the entrance were two young men and a woman, each sitting at the peak of the Transcendent stage.
They didn’t have that warrior aura around them, but looking at them, Klaus could instinctively tell that pissing them off wouldn’t end well for him.
They were clad in lab coats that Klaus knew contained more weapons than they were showing.
‘They know rune magic, huh? No wonder they managed to create shrinking tech and even made such powerful armor look like a simple lab coat. These two are dangerous, perhaps the most dangerous people I’ve seen so far.’
Klaus was impressed. The two looked harmless, but he saw their danger, and he knew that if and when it came down to it, the twins staring at him would come in handy.
They were dangerous, incredibly dangerous.
He was also fascinated by seeing two brilliant minds, and while he didn’t know where this urge was coming from, he was looking forward to talking to them.
“My Queen, we’ve been expecting you,” the lady said, bowing slightly with her brother.
“There’s no need to be polite, Anaki. I know you and Inaki would rather continue to play video games than receive me at the gate,” Queen Lunara smirked and walked past them.
Klaus immediately recognized this air between them and could tell these three go way back, perhaps they had known each other long before the apocalypse.
“So you are Klaus Hanson,” Anaki asked, looking at Klaus like she was scanning him.
“The one and only,” Klaus said with a smile.
“They said you are a co-creator of Oracle. Care to tell me what a warrior who dropped out of high school can do creating such a next-gen AI/VR?” Inaki asked, also looking at Klaus like he was on display.
The two clearly didn’t place him in their sight. Klaus could only laugh, knowing his visit would be a fun one.
Just hearing them speak was enough to tell him he indeed is in the presence of two brilliant minds. A part of him buried deep started to stir.
While he was Fruity the Combat Mage or Klaus the Weapons Overlord, he had lived many other lives.
One of his ninth incarnations was where he earned the title, The Genius Rune Master.
And as the saying goes, once a genius, always a genius.