Chapter 8: Ancient Ruins
2074 คำ
The Galactic Tree is billions of years old and expected of such age, several eras alongside the great organizations and figures that lived and flourished within them had come and goes.
However, despite their destruction, they had left several inheritances buried underneath the earth in the hope that someone in the future era will find them and continue from where they stopped.
In the present time, several cultivators and the organizations behind them are seeking these inheritances to strengthen themselves. Unfortunately, these expeditions are restricted by borders and the sovereignty of the realm where a tomb or a temple is located. It had also worsened these past few decades due to the ongoing civil war between the empire and the confederation.
Hence, several expeditions will end before it can even start.
Due to this, the business of tomb raiding came to be.
Started by a few unaffiliated but powerful cultivators nearly two decades ago, it had grown into the well-funded well-organized criminal group that it is now today.
Unrestrained by the borders and their respective realms’ sovereignties, their digs and expeditions were also accomplished unrestrained and countless treasures and lost arts were swiftly circulated back into the limelight, improving several organizations including the Grimlands as a result.
They are also ruthless as they are organized. Give this employment for his infiltration for example. They are the tail of the lizard for the lack of better definition. Unlike the unseen leaders and organizers, they are the oblivious fall guys employed not only to do the laborious parts but to also act as sacrificial lambs in case the dig is caught.
“That’s all of them.” The captain of the transport ship relayed to the team leader after he and eleven others were endorsed to the dig site.
As for the realm where they are right now, it’s the realm of Ghallian of the northern Inner Branch.
“Alright, listen up! My name is Hews and I’m the team leader of this site’s clearing team.” The team leader started his briefing to the new recruits. “Our job is simple. We dig the potential entrances and clear it for the expedition team. As of now, all the potential entrances were confirmed. However, some of them are tougher to dig. That’s what brought the twelve of you here.”
As he spoke, he and Magnum, on the other hand, were stealthily reading the Mana flow from underneath to have it mapped. If they can detect an entrance the Crimson Molluscs missed then that’s the most ideal for them. Fortunately, there’s half a dozen more that are unaccounted and one of them is in perfect spot for a stealthy entrance.
“Understood!?” Hews demanded at the end of his briefing.
“Yes sir!”
The twelve of them were then divided into three groups. In total, there are eight uncovered entrances in this site and three were already with an expedition that had departed two days prior. He was assigned to help clear entrance ‘5’ that has an expedition team scheduled for the next day. Technically, the need of their recruitment into the dig is a form of a failsafe to ensure that all expedition teams can depart as scheduled.
After all, time is always the essence in tomb raiding, faster is always better.
Anyway, the clearing job in their assigned entrance was uneventful. Each of the groups’ supervisors is a Martial Artist with a technique for trap detection and dismantling but no such cases had risen. His digging was obviously faster than his co-workers due to his actual strength as a Master-tier.
In the path of cultivation, merging together all the factors such as the Mana, meridian, and lastly, the mastered Combat Styles courtesy of the other two’s richness, the level of a cultivator can be divided into four -tiers.
○ Those that mastered more than three Combat Arts are called an expert-tier or simply an Expert.
○ A Minimum of ten is a Master …
○ …while thirty and more is a Grandmaster.
○ Lastly, those that achieved enlightenment after mastering countless of Combat Styles are hailed as Transcended.
Still, his display wasn’t glaring enough to be noteworthy. Therefore, when nightfall came, everything had concluded in peace.
In their team’s tent, he and Magnum wait for everyone to fall asleep and once they did, they stealthily mended into the shadows and moved around the site and descend towards the entrance they’d identified.
This dig site is atop of a sea cliff and all officially identified entrances were also within it. However, there are also entrances underwater that none in the Crimson Molluscs had bothered to search and secure. Well, that’s probably expected since the water is infested with violent whirlpools.
“It even looks scarier at night.” Magnum looked at the cluster of whirlpools underneath them and commented.
“Well, good thing I can’t see it.” *Bang!* He said after firing the Reviver to equip his armour.
“Does that even matter?” Magnum scoffed. He might also be rolling his eyes. “Even if you’re not a cultivator, this thing will not kill you.”
After that remark, bluish Mana seeped out from Magnum’s front paws and a spot on the water below them parted, creating a vertical tunnel leading directly to a large fissure.
*Swoosh!
Diving down at top speed, they entered the fissure and beyond it is a straightforward tunnel leading down then eventually upward, into the ruins underneath the cliff.
“Ha!” They both did a quick burst of their Mana to dry themselves off before appraising their surroundings, Magnum with his eyes and him with everything else besides that.
“I don’t sense any cultivator nearby,” he confirmed. “Unfortunately, we also have company.”
*Pang! Pang! Pang!
He waved his gun and deflected some poisonous spikes. Following that, several stone humanoids revealed themselves the same time he loaded a cyan coloured capsule.
“Golems.” Magnum declared.
The science of creating artificial lifeforms since ancient times, the golems. They had served several purposes like manufacturing and maintenance over the millennia but ever more often, they are utilized for combat and like this one, for security.
[CRUSHER CYAN]
*Boom!
Shots were fired and the struck golems were disintegrated to dusts.
There are two types of golems. The more common machine-types, made from steel and circuits, and mass-produced in factories, and then the rarer binder-types, constructed by cultivators, more often by Sorcerers, from elements and any inanimate objects via the injection of Mana.
These golems swamping towards them belonged to the latter and they can reconstruct themselves when damaged not unless their physical compositions are completely blown apart and hence, the loading of the Crusher Cyan capsule. Magnum could have been effective against foes of this kind but the underground passage is way too narrow and unstable that it could instigate collapse if he makes any move with his full Dragon form. Therefore, they are without choice but to have him benched to his miniature form for the time being.
“This is not how I imagined things would go forward!” Magnum’s displeased voice exclaimed from atop of his head.
“Unfortunately, this is not the stage for you,” he said and spun the Reviver’s cylinder three times…
[EXCEED CHARGE!]
…before triggering another shot.
*BOOM!
The shot fired split into countless pieces and struck several golems simultaneously. Thanks to that, the passage was finally cleared.
However, before completely proceeding forward, he took out an empty capsule and twisting the cap to open, *Swissh!* it commenced a suction which gathered the essences left behind by the destroyed golems.
[VENOM SILVER]
The internal prompt voiced out after the capsule was filled and slid back into his ammunition belt.
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇
On another side, a group of cultivators, a swordsman, a brawler, and a healer, were running for their lives, escaping from something sinister looming from the depth of a dark tunnel.
“It’s catching up, hurry!”
Three Martial Artists and two Sorcerers, that’s their group. A mid-tier expedition team of the Crimson Molluscs and according to their assessment, they are more than enough to safely venture these ruins. However, there are only three of them left and are now scurrying away in fear from the thing that’s chasing them. Their gears are all torn and tattered and traces of blood are all over their bodies, revealing several injuries.
*Dung! Dung! Dung!
Behind them, thuds of heavy footsteps are approaching.
Hearing these noises, the colour on their faces drained and their pace became more frantic.
*Bang!
A dark streak of light flashed from behind them, carrying a huge spike that immediately penetrated the back of the brawler.
“Warg! No!” He, their surviving swordsman and leader, exclaimed when he turned back and saw his companion get pinned to the ground. However, he gritted his teeth and continued running.
“We can’t leave him!” Asha, their healer exclaimed.
“It’s no use!”
He roared and urged her to continue running but she didn’t listen, she stopped and immediately attempted to heal Warg.
Several seconds later, her blood curling screams sounded. His face turned paler as he exert every last ounce of his strength to speed up.
He is the only one standing now. All of his companions are gone.
Unwillingness and regret gnawed his entire being. They’ve made a blunder and now, they’re paying for it with their lives.
Tomb raiders measures the danger of a ruin through star levels, one star being the lowest and nine the highest. This ruin has a tentative assessment from between two to four, which gives it an average danger level and therefore, a mid-tier team like them was sent. However, the moment they’d delved into the final chamber of the ruins, the danger level spiked exponentially. What they encountered was at least an eight, something that is way out of their league.
*Bang!
Another streak flashed towards him, stopping his train of thoughts, and though he had maneuvered his self out of the way, he was still grazed and the impact caused him to fall to the ground and cough out a mouthful of blood.
*Dung! Dung! Dung!
Along with the footstep, the giant figure finally emerged from the darkness.
It’s a stone golem of at least three meters with a pair of horns unlike its smaller counterparts. Complex arrays covered its entire body, giving it a metallic gleam.
There’s pure hatred masked on its expression as the scarlet globes it has for eyes shone. It is as if it wants to destroy everything
“No! I don’t want to die!” Tears poured out from his eyes as he come unhinged. This golem is the defense mechanism of the final chamber. The moment they’d entered, it had started to chase them.
It’s tough, has high physical damage, and highly resistant to magic attacks. He could only watch as his companions were killed by its hands and ultimately, he is the only one left.
*Whoosh!
It stood in front of him and punched its massive fist to him. He closed his eyes and braced for the end but unexpectedly…
*BOOM!
…the pain did not come and he had instead suffered an ear-deafening explosion. This urged him to reopen his eyes.
He saw the giant golem staggering backward as if it was punched on the face. Then, when it steadied itself, it glared pass him towards something unseen. The golem is now ignoring him completely.
“I’m saved.” However, he didn’t revelled over the feeling for long and resumed his escape. He is thankful to whatever it was that took the golem’s attention but he has no plan of staying to see whatever that will happen through.
He was given a chance to survive and he is taking it.
- ผู้เขียน
