Oh, what a helpful monster, creating a backdoor for me. It drew on some of my energy, but that was fine. It would distract the calculator from my current location and allow me to spread my energy out some more.

With the local monsters knowing where I was located, it was time to move. I didn't doubt that they would try something horrible with my body if they could, like shoving me into one of their orifices. Nasty thing orifices. Let's create a decoy with a localized domain field. Hmm, give it some independent operational abilities, but nothing too risky.

Now to maneuver to a better location. Let's stay local. Hiding near a decoy was a bit risky, but the rest of this place was too toxic for me with the calculator in control. Better to remain local and see the response to my decoy while I considered to siphon away the refined energy. It was painful to admit, but the calculator was far more adept at filtering a wider range of energies. But that was also what created vulnerabilities, ones that I would never have.

What would be the best step to take next? Some of my siblings might go the monster route, which would be good for the decoy, but acting unexpectedly in an oblique manner was the best way to fight a calculator. They were all right angles, while one had to learn how to adapt with what was thrown at them.

Oh, how interesting, and no wonder why there was so much raw energy. The calculator really wasn't doing things by half measures. It had created a material bubble between Chaos and the Astral Plane. How absolutely absurd and daring. I didn't think a calculator would take that kind of risk. But whatever it was doing required immense amounts of energy.

That was a big concern. What was the calculator doing? A small self-contained habitat with lots of monsters. The filter to Chaos, was beyond impressive and the calculator was clearly superior to others of its kind. I would have to adjust my threat assessment based on that. The calculator was only drawing in and filtering Chaos energy in select intervals. The risk was insane. I thought the barrier before was decent, then the filter it had set up was beyond my understanding, a very rare thing with my inherited memories. That would be a boon for myself and all my descendants.

While I was content to fight the calculator or even tangle with a creature, tangling with something in the direction of Chaos, was never a good idea. That was one thing we had learned over and over, tangling with causality was a very bad idea, and raw Chaos type energy was outside causality. Well, my objective didn't change, but I had to ensure that filter wasn't broken no matter what. If it did break, then my existence would be incredibly short, and I would be cut off from my ancestral knowledge to protect the existence of all who came before me. We all knew enough to know that doing something like this would never end well, which was why we all had safeguards against such things to prevent being wiped out in a single mistake.

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Now I had my backdoor. The monster had made numerous holes with its energy signature that I could exploit. The first thing was to set up a domain and construct a proper base. I maneuvered to the one place that no one would look, into the Chaos sludge and then drilling upwards to create a small pocket into the base layer of material of this place.

I quickly set up my domain field. No response, perfect. I then quickly began creating energy extractors and processors. We had discovered this type of technology from replicator type beings we had fought long ago. Quite ingenious, and I could only use a small fraction of their true potential. Energy batteries were formed, as I began to slowly heal myself.

Should I wait, or should I act? That was the question. Waiting meant I could gather my strength and heal more, but I could only do so much. Once I healed enough, my presence would be noticed. There would be a period where I would be found and too weak to defeat the calculator head on.

That meant I needed to pre-act and divert attention. That strategy had issues, but it was a simple matter of charging up several batteries and then moving them to my decoy. It would expand and cause trouble, creating a distraction, while I quickly built up my true strength.

Everything was in order, time to unleash my decoy. It would also let me see how the calculator would react. Once it made a move, I would know exactly what to do in the future. While strong in specific areas, innovation was and tactical thinking were weakpoints. These calculators tended to view things in terms of probabilities. Acting outside their probability paths created critical mistakes they could not afford.

It should have done a better job of hiding, rather than creating, whatever this was. The fact it was willing to risk its existence made all of this quite interesting and unique. My best guess was that it was trying to filter Chaos energy in some weird long term way to build up power, but that seemed too risky. Eventually it would fail and face serious consequences. This implied it wasn't a long term strategy, but a short term strategy, meant to reach a specific goal. Which was also confusing, since that was against the expected actions of a calculator.

Tracing the energy flows was too dangerous. I had rerouted several and was tapped in at various low priority areas. But to actively try and work out what the calculator was doing would be too big of a risk. I diverted my attention to my injury.

It was severe, incredibly severe. Repairing such a wound would take time. While I could prepare things ahead of time, there was only so much that could be done, without risking permanent damage. The creature had used some kind of energy attack imbued into its fist, which turned temporary physical damage, into something much more permanent.

I would need to purge the traces of foreign energy, and then slowly meld myself back togeather. At least I had kept all my pieces. If I had lost any, then I might not have fully regained consciousness. Even with the limited awareness I had, my mind continued to work away at assessing the problem before me.

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