How can a retired savior be considered retired if his price drops to 40,000?

Chapter 402: The necessity of high emotional intelligence members in the team running-in process

I don’t know whether to say “fortunately” or “disappointingly”, but the person who appeared from behind the molten and collapsed hot metal flow was indeed Arjuna.

This dark-skinned attendant usually stays on the Storm's Edge, and his presence is no greater than that of the mortal servants in the Astartes. When nothing special happens, everyone's work scope does not overlap. Unless the vast majority of the Astartes on the ship have their own plug-ins, they keep their distance from the existing Heroic Spirits in Chaldea. The only two points of contact are probably the infirmary and the cafeteria. It is easy to forget that the other party is also a "just mortal" with special skills...

Subspace creatures.

It's a warp creature with mysterious combat power that can take down a Chaos-corrupted Titan with just a few arrows.

In this corridor that blocks psychic energy, both Akurdona and Santo, as creatures of the subspace, now have a personal experience of the inconveniences of moving in it. First, they cannot freely pass through the wall in the form of spirits. They can only appear in the corridor without black stone in the wall not far away from the next door - specifically, beyond three gates - and "put on" the physical shell woven by ether to protect their weakened spirits in this situation, and then step in. Secondly, when they try to perform any "beyond the laws of physics" in this corridor, they will feel a considerable degree of resistance. In this environment, if you want to make your "super-real" actions achieve the same effect, you must spend more energy. Thirdly, the energy consumed here cannot be quickly replenished from the outside world through contracts like in the outside world. Of course, Fujimaru Ritsuka is here, and she can divide her magic power, but unless it is an extreme case, no one will probably count on that little "resource".

But Arjuna endured all of the above, melted through the three golden doors with ease, and came to all of them: "Master, are you okay?"

"It's okay." Fujimaru Ritsuka knocked on the armor on Santo's waist, suggesting that he put down his gun. "It's just that everyone looks a little embarrassed. I didn't suffer any serious injuries."

"But you don't have the final say on this matter." Asclepius' voice came from behind the molten door. "Although the cooperation between us as 'patron and researcher' does include the content of 'finding strange and rare cases', I strongly disagree with your behavior of personally taking action and turning yourself into a pathological specimen."

When hearing this voice, Fujimaru Ritsuka obviously froze.

"I'm really fine!" She raised her voice nervously and hid her hands behind her back, "It's just a little scratch! It's so small that it will be healed by the time I reach the end of the corridor!"

"Then what's wrong with your internal bleeding?" Asclepius came out from behind Arjuna, carrying a medicine box. The mechanical snake on the staff that always followed him was even faster. It floated in front of Fujimaru Ritsuka while he was talking. "Don't think that I won't notice your healing magic. With your mediocre skills, you wouldn't even be able to be a witch doctor in my time. Stand still and let me finish the emergency treatment!"

Three minutes is not a long time, but the next three minutes were enough for everyone present to deeply understand the food chain structure on the Storm's Edge through such a short tea show. Maxius, who had no psychological expectations, and Fulgrim, the clone, who only had a superficial understanding of the "basics", were greatly shocked by this "imperial saint's loss of face" situation comedy in front of them, but this did not hinder Akuldona, who had seen it once before on Parmenio.

"Are you the only ones who have come here?" he asked Arjuna.

The latter shook his head and explained, "It's just that we can descend faster in spirit form. Sigismund immediately organized a rescue team up there, but it takes time to dispatch them, and it also takes time to use the elevator to descend to the depths."

"What's the situation up ahead?"

"We had already cleared the area when we came here. If nothing else happens suddenly, the journey to the elevator to the next area should be peaceful."

Maxius couldn't help but interject, "Several Ultramarines originally stationed here should have gone in the direction you came from. Did you see them when you came here?"

Asclepius sighed visibly. Arjuna glanced in the direction of his colleague and did not answer the question directly: "My condolences."

Maxius nodded and said nothing more. He was not very familiar with Lincenus or any other brother of the regiment stationed here. They only knew each other's names and recognized each other's faces. But the fact that an entire team was annihilated in the underground prison without a word still made him feel absurd, angry and powerless.

On this issue, it was the clone who showed a more obvious emotion of "sadness": "What a pity. Lincelnus once said that he was born in the Storm Star Region, but was taken away by the Black Ship when he was very young. If it weren't for this series of missions I brought, he would have wanted to apply to join the expedition to the dark side of the empire. There are others..." He looked back sadly and took a look at the tragic scene on the battlefield before, "They were all..."

After hearing what he said, Acourdona's mood obviously dropped a level, and Santo became even angrier - but because he seemed angry for most of the day, this didn't strike anyone else as being wrong, except for Fujimaru Ritsuka who looked at him a little more.

"Okay, sorry to ruin the mood - I don't know anyone who died here today. If you have a problem with me suddenly interrupting the current mood, it's normal to think I'm cold-blooded, but I still have to say something." The wounds on her hands had just been disinfected and sealed with the artificial skin spray brought by Asclepius, but Fujimaru Ritsuka clapped her hands nonchalantly, using the noise to catch everyone's attention. "This is really not a place to mourn. At least let's leave the range of influence of the black stone and review this issue in detail, how about it?"

No one objected. Everyone knew that the current environment could not be considered safe. They did not know if there were any more Eldar ambushes around them. The earthquake that had clearly occurred out of the ordinary was also disturbing. The top priority was to continue moving forward and get out of the underground environment as soon as possible. Only Asclepius grabbed Fujimaru Ritsuka who was about to leave.
"You did say something very similar to the commander, but that doesn't mean you can escape this injection of antibiotics." The God of Medicine easily held down the flailing Master and forcibly rolled up his sleeves. "In the next three hours, it is normal to have a fever but not exceed 38℃. Also, don't grab things you don't recognize with your bare hands in the future!"
-
After she "walked through it", Fujimaru Ritsuka realized that the area of ​​the corridor paved with black stones and shielded from spiritual energy was only about 200 meters long. The reason why she felt that she spent a long time on this road was mainly due to the adamantine gates that were lowered every 20 meters due to special circumstances.

After passing through these ten gates (11 if the one at the door of the guardhouse is included), most of the team members felt relieved. In addition, in the area of ​​the corridor that was not affected by the black stone, Arjuna had already violently cleared all obstacles on the entire route, so the team's progress was significantly accelerated - until they found the bodies of Linsinus and his brothers in the chapter. The reason for using such a vague description in the narrative is that among the four lifeless bodies, only Linsinus can still be identified. Perhaps because he was a think tank, the psyker was given a quick and decisive death by the enemy as a high-threat unit, in order to prevent his burning emotions from causing any irreversible accidents in this area where psykers can be used relatively freely. His remaining three brothers were not so lucky - their bodies were twisted by pain, dry and broken. If it weren't for the fragments of armor scattered around, others could hardly recognize their original appearance, or even recognize that they were Astartes.

"To be honest, this universe can refresh my understanding at any time and anywhere." Asclepius, who had obviously seen something from the miserable state of the remains, could not help but comment when he passed by again, "I can't imagine how any creature with a brain and self-awareness could do such a thing that desecrates life and soul at the same time, and even formalize this process."

When Arjuna and his companions first came here, although they were still in a hurry, Asclepius still placed the bodies of the deceased as neatly as possible out of basic respect. Even so, they did not move the bodies too much, so anyone could tell from the position relationship and the scars left behind that Lincelnus and his colleagues had come here to protect the room behind him, which was temporarily vacated and renovated shortly after Fulgrim's clones moved in:
——The room where the spirit particle transmission communication device made by Santo is stored, which can instantly communicate with other members of the Cursed Army "below" the Astronomican.

After realizing this, Santo suddenly exploded:

"What an idiot." His robotic voice still clearly showed his anger, "Why are the Ultramarines so rigid in their behavior?! What's the point of guarding such a stupid thing?! This broken thing——"

He couldn't help but walk forward and kicked the tightly closed door hard to vent his anger: "——There is no special technical content at all!"

The Thinker, who had suffered a severe shock, captured Santo's identification code and opened the door under an inexplicable misplaced command. The entire huge machine inside was intact, and everything in the outside world seemed to have nothing to do with it. It just stayed where it was, waiting for Santo or Akurdona to capture Linsenus and come to this room again.

This overlapping scene with the past made Iron Hand speechless for a moment, and Maxius' dissatisfied voice took the opportunity to interrupt: "Brother Lincelinus just wanted to guard important strategic assets. From the results, he did not fail. His sacrifice was valuable, and I cannot allow you to do this-"

"——What do you know! You don't know anything about this machine. You just casually put your own definition on it!" Santo roared angrily, easily drowning out Maxius's voice with his own. "He is just stupid! He even dragged three brothers in the regiment to do stupid things with him! Now it's good——"

"-Santo." Fujimaru Ritsuka suddenly interrupted. Her calm and sad voice was not loud, but strangely, it really silenced Iron Hand's voice: "You must have had a good time together before."

This sentence seemed to Maxius to be incoherent, but it was like pressing the pause button on Santo. Iron Hand's action of turning to others in anger was stuck in the middle, making the mighty and ferocious Iron Cavalry Terminator armor look a little funny. At this time, Akurdona, as another party who could restrain his emotions, spoke:

"Indeed." His voice was also tinged with a hint of sorrow. "Lincenus is very easy to get along with. I can't imagine why anyone would dislike him."

“Sergeant Maxius, on behalf of Captain Santo, I apologize to you and the Ultramarines for this matter.” It is precisely because he is a complete outsider that Fujimaru Ritsuka is able to calmly handle the conflicts that may escalate within the team. “His attitude is indeed inappropriate, but I believe he does not want to insult the sacrifices of your brothers in the chapter. He just... feels that they deserve a better ending. The reason why he expresses his emotions in such a bad way is just because he is too angry.”

Or, I am too used to using anger to express all my negative emotions, Fujimaru Ritsuka added silently in his heart.

Santo, whose inner thoughts were suddenly exposed, showed some embarrassment in a dilemma. Maxius did not quite understand this emotion. In his opinion, Santo was just frozen in place and acting very irritated. But since the Imperial Saint had already started to mediate, Santo himself did not refute it - although he did not take the opportunity to apologize directly and go down to the ground - as an extreme warrior, Maxius should also carry forward his style and let this matter go for the time being.

They both nodded to each other in silence, then looked away. This certainly wasn't a reconciliation, but it was a way to defuse a possible duel, and under the current circumstances, this was a good outcome. Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded to himself, then spoke again:
"I think it is necessary to state one thing: the current situation is not the responsibility of anyone present. No one subjectively wants this to happen. We are all victims who were unfortunately caught up in the accident. All the tragedies that happened here today were caused by the assassination plan launched by the Eldar prophet Adalad against me. If anyone wants to find someone responsible for their anger and hatred, it should be Adalad - remember this name for me, maybe I will forget it after a sleep in a few days."

The clone at the edge of the team seemed to be stung by these words, and turned his head sharply, his lips trembling, but he still said nothing. On the other hand, Akurdona tried very hard to liven up the atmosphere: "Haha. Your memory is not that bad."

"It's hard to say." Fujimaru Ritsuka said noncommittally, "Although the environment is a little safer now, giving everyone more time to have emotional feelings, don't forget that we are not completely out of the danger zone until another elevator takes us up."

Another round of earthquakes started almost immediately after Fujimaru Ritsuka finished speaking, as if to deliberately add a footnote to her point. The tremors this time were not very obvious, just barely felt by people, but the repeated occurrence of earthquakes that "should not occur" was obviously not a good sign.

"The ether in the atmosphere is a bit chaotic. This doesn't seem to be a very natural phenomenon." Asclepius, who was not a professional but was still the only designated Caster in the team, suddenly interrupted, "Let's move forward quickly, and pray that we can get up soon. I have a bad feeling."

"Yeah, it's best to get up there quickly." Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded, then raised his head to glance at the clone at the edge, and deliberately proposed a lighter purpose for this, "The sooner everyone gets up there, the sooner they can take a shower and clean themselves up. It's no use being covered in dirt like this."

(End of this chapter)