"Woo," Grey exhaled a breath. He was still a bit amped up, honestly, and his eyes were almost darting around as though he was looking for somebody else to fight.
But then his eyes landed on a particularly pretty nun whose mouth was a little slack jawed.
Grey gave her a wink and she immediately turned away. To this he could only laugh.
He didn’t actually know that woman all that well. He had just been yelled at for taking a piss. It’s not his fault there weren’t any "bathroom here" signs in this place.
She was lucky he didn’t take a dump instead.
But from what he could tell, she was probably the equivalent of Pandro to whoever the head nun of this place was. Normally, he wasn’t all that much a fan of blonds. He thought people gassed them up a little bit too much just because they were a little rarer than most people, when by a lot of objective metrics, they weren’t any more or less pretty.
This one was definitely gorgeous though, right down to those burning pink eyes of hers. Grey had never seen eyes like that before.
Back on Earth he’d assumed some weird contact lenses. But in this place, they might very well be real.
The main point, though, was that the church was teeming with experts. The number was more than he was even ready for.
Setting aside the Guardians and their disciples, there was the Pope. And the Pope almost certainly had a legion of priests beneath him. Then there were the nuns and their weird techniques. He hadn’t forgotten how he almost got screwed over by the first group of them he met.
And that was all before he had to consider the normal Holy Knights they probably had tens of thousands of. Then there was the Imperial Family and their cohort of minions, all before you finally started to consider the two Dukedoms.
After just an hour or so in this place, Grey had two conclusions.
First, he was very lucky he didn’t die even faster the first time he looped in this place.
And second... he was kind of screwed.
To say that he was on a time crunch was an understatement. It took less than a week from the first time Zone 234 was mentioned to the point the first aliens showed up. And there was no guarantee that this would even be the end of the aliens showing up either.
Also, those aliens in question were likely just the closest ones nearby. So they had had an easier time of getting here in the first place. If Grey tried to use their methods to get to other Zones, it might take him weeks or months to make it to the other contestants.
How was he going to cover so much ground and save all these people when he couldn’t even properly deal with this little church?
Sure, he had defeated Pandro fairly easily, but it had still taken some effort.
Pandro was manhandled by the behemoth of a man from earlier. And Grey was pretty sure that man was just yet another disciple of The Boundless.
Screwed. He was well and truly screwed.
But he’d be damned if he let those watching get the satisfaction of knowing all of that.
He passed a hand through his hair and then walked off to the side. His shoulders brushed past Pandro’s elder disciple brother and he gave the man a cheeky grin.
In response, the big guy only chuckled.
"Alright, let’s go people. I have princesses to flirt with." He put his hands on his hips and looked at Amunet and the others.
The pink-eyed nun frowned. "The Imperial Bloodline is not something you can impugn—."
"Listen, cutie. If you go around using words like ’impugn’, you’ll age and wrinkle faster. You don’t want that, do you?"
"If your intellect cannot keep up—."
"It can keep up just fine. Your eyes are just taking up a lot of brain real estate right now." Grey said with a grin.
The nun flushed and stuttered, suddenly not knowing what to say. She was a nun, the utmost representation of purity in the entire church. She had never been spoken to like this before. No one dared.
Everyone knew how strict and protective the Head Nun was. Any squires who even tried to do such a thing were flogged within a half inch of their life and left to recover without aid.
Grey really didn’t seem to give a damn, though.
"A moment, Grey Temolt."
"Hm?" Grey looked back, but he felt the shadow cast over him before he even did. It could have really only been one person. "What’s up?"
The big man chuckled. "I am Petri, Pandro’s elder disciple brother. We haven’t been formally introduced."
Grey withstood the urge to make fun of his name and turned to extend his hand in a shake.
Petri’s smile became wider.
"Shouldn’t you take care of him?" Grey asked, looking toward Pandro who was still unconscious in the middle of a pit.
"He’ll be fine." Petri waved a hand. "I was actually wondering if your words about your skill with mechs was the truth or not."
The pink-eyed nun scoffed. "Of course not," she mumbled under her breath.
"Depends on why you’re asking." Grey said with a grin.
"Oh? How so?"
"Well, if you want me to make something for you for free, absolutely not. But if you’re willing to pay a pretty sum, something can be arranged, I’m sure."
Petri let free a boisterous laughter.
"That is, of course, not a problem. I would actually like help with my junior here, though. As you can see, he struggles with maintaining his weight properly. He is the most talented of us Boundless disciples, but he has the most restrictions as well. Master has tried the best of the best already, but it is not a matter of a stronger mech, but instead one of higher quality.
"Are you capable?"
Grey blinked. "Sure. Why not? For the right price, of course."
"And what price would that be?"
"Two things. First, I want access to all the maps you have available, I am currently looking for something. And two, I want to meet a pretty princess. That’s not too much to ask, is it? The Imperial Clan’s got to be able to make babies somehow."