Chapter 145 Stirring Things Up

After Akali and the hole explorers went down, Lee Seng and the students were all put into their tasks again. Lee Seng wandered around the area, picking up dead monster bodies and tossing them into a new pile of dead bodies. He got plenty of stares for his odd appearance. His veins were still black and the Dark Matter skintight shirt wasn't coming off anytime soon. The whispers about his appearance was already making the rounds across the secure point. Lee Seng continued to work. He could feel Keng stirring inside of him.

'I can feel you moving. What's wrong?' Lee Seng asked. He heaved five goblins into his arms and wandered over to grab some goblins with his tail.

'You don't feel all that energy pulsing in your body right now?' Keng asked. Lee Seng could feel Keng deciding to stir in his abdomen region.

'What do you mean by that?'

'The Protocol! It activated, right? I can feel it pulsing through your body. It feels harsh and gross.'

'Ahh, that's what you meant.' Lee Seng dumped the bodies and turned back around to continue his work. 'I'm surprised you can feel the Protocol working in my body but you can't hear its voice.'

'Didn't you mention something about that when it first started...? The first horde invasion with your brother Akio. You heard something, right? Is it like that?' Keng's memory was sharp. He remembered that particular situation clearly and it shocked Lee Seng.

'Yeah, I guess it's something like that. It's still a woman's voice. It sounds familiar to me but I can't put my finger on it.' Lee Seng swept the bodies together with his tail. He pulled his extended tail back and moved to the bodies and began to stack the bodies on top of each other.

'What did it say this time?' Keng inquired. Lee Seng wondered if Keng was adapting his curiousity. If it Keng had adopted Lee Seng's curiousity, he had a feeling Keng and him might get into bigger trouble because of it.

'I reached the fifteen percent threshold.'

'What does that even mean?'

'Akali says its the first major point in the Protocol's protocol.' Lee Seng lifted six goblin bodies and slowly turned around and wrapped his tail on the last three bodies. He slowly manuevered himself back to the dumping spot, being careful to not accidentally shift the bodies weights around.

'The Protocol is actually serving its purpose? I thought I killed it.'

'I think you just managed to kill whatever was trying to kill you.' Lee Seng retorted. He slowly turned, avoiding the body retrievers and collectors, and set the three goblins down from his tail and pulled his tail back. He squatted down and set the six goblins down, watching them tumble into the pile in front of him.

'Well, if you could somehow figure out what the Protocol is doing <strong>exactly</strong>, that would be nice. I don't like the feeling of it coursing through your whole body right now. It makes me uncomfortable.' Keng complained. Lee Seng rolled his eyes, catching the glances of other adventurers looking at him.

They started to give him snarky faces and make comments about him not being able to go down the hole. Lee Seng turned and walked back to the spot he was cleaning. He didn't need to blow up in front of everyone. He had a lot on his plate already.

'I'll try to dig for some information. Right now, let's just let it run its course. The faster it does so, the faster I can figure out what it did to me.' Lee Seng took a mental note to gather more information about the Protocol.

'Do you even know what <strong>exactly </strong>happened yesterday?' Keng asked. Lee Seng shrugged at Keng's question. He moved closer to the crater and noticed the female shifter's body and head were still in the same place. He slid down the crater and moved towards the body.

'I don't think I've ever studied a shifter before.' Lee Seng commented. His curiousity was growing and he could hear Keng sighing. Lee Seng bent down and stared at the body. The blue shifter had an orange-tinged blood color. He yawned as he grabbed the dead shifter's arm and lifted it.

"I know what happened yesterday during that fight with the tentacle lady... She whooped my ass and I tried hard to suppress the Protocol, but it overrided me. It transformed my whole body into..." Lee Seng paused. He had physically spoken out loud while staring at the shifters arm. He shook his head and looked around to check if anyone was around him before continuing. "The skintight suit with tentacles for a tail. I felt strong in that form. Like I wasn't holding back my full capabilities. The Protocol had just taken all those mental and physical blocks off me."

The shifters skin was blue like the books had told Lee Seng. It had similar texture to human skin, but felt a bit glossy. He wondered if it was because of their earth-born powers that they had glossy-like skin.

'Nah, that doesn't make sense.' Lee Seng shook his head. 'If I had to be stereotypical, their skin would feel rougher than this. This female shifter's skin is glossy-like for whatever reason. Maybe its to hold the 'illusion' of being someone else?'

The shifter had no indication of fingerprints. Nails were rough and looked like they were somewhat caked with dirt. Lee Seng released the shifters arm and moved onto observing the rest of the body.

'Humanoid features close to the human. Don't really need to know about reproductive organs... Feet seem rough. The bottom part of the foot is tough... Maybe to compensate for being barefoot all the time? I don't think regular steel would be able to pierce these feet...' Lee Seng grabbed the head by the hair and lifted the body up in one motion. He turned around and noticed Ritsuka was coming over to him.

"Lee Seng!" Ritsuka called after him. Lee Seng followed the edge of the crater wall until he reached Ritsuka.

"What's up?" Lee Seng asked with the shifters body slumped over his shoulder and his right hand holding the head by the hair. Ritsuka stared at the head and slumped body before really staring at the weird black material on Lee Seng's body. Lee Seng's veins were still pulsing black which made Ritsuka quickly readjust himself.

"Oh," Ritsuka cleared his throat. "Mr. Luis saw you were staring at the shifter earlier, so he wanted me to check on you. He said Number 9 had told him to keep an eye on you because you're..." He motioned at Lee Seng's body and Lee Seng took the hint. He heaved the body over the crater wall and set the head next to it. Ritsuka moved out of the way and watched Lee Seng climb up and heave the body back on his shoulder and head in hand.

"I'm fine. I was studying the body. It's my first time seeing a shifter. I wanted to know if there was anything interesting to note about a shifter." Lee Seng explained. He lifted the head and smiled. "Orange blood is interesting, right?"

"Uhh... I guess...?" Ritsuka uncomfortably chuckled. Ritsuka followed Lee Seng over to the dumping site. "Did you find anything intersting about... the shifter?"

"Other than orange blood... Shifters have really tough feet. I wonder if a regular steel blade would shatter against her foot." Lee Seng managed to lift the dead shifter's leg up and show the foot to Ritsuka. Ritsuka moved further away and nodded uncomfortably.

'I guess he doesn't like studying this kinda thing. Everyone has their dislikes.' Lee Seng moved the leg back into place and Ritsuka slowly moved back. The two made it to the dump site and a scavenger flagged him down.

"Hey, kid!" The scavenger stood up and moved over to him. Lee Seng stopped and turned at the scavenger woman. She had gloves on and her outfit reminded Lee Seng of a car repairwoman. "The shifters don't get dumped here. AA needs them so I'll take it from you."

"Oh, sure." Lee Seng moved over to the scavenger woman and set the head down. "Can you handle this?"

"Mmm, don't worry about my appearence. I'm stronger than I look." She motioned for him to give her the body. Lee Seng lifted the body into his arms and set it into her arms. The scavenger woman easily held onto it and then motioned with foot for the head. Lee Seng grabbed the head and managed to put it in her hand.

"Why does AA need shifters?" Lee Seng asked before the woman could leave.

"Ah, you don't know, huh? You're students, right?" The woman recalled the information. "Shifters are used for their orange blood. The blood is a huge thing used in many different things in crafting and brewing. It sells well."

"Oh, do I get a cut of that?" Lee Seng greedily asked. The woman chuckled and turned around.

"I guess I mistook your student ranks too lightly. Come with me and we'll get that settled."

"You wanna come?" Lee Seng asked. "Or do you have something you need to do still?"

"Eh, I'm just on watch. I can come with you and then I should get back to work."