So, what was I waiting for? Slowly, I pressed my hand against the image. My palm easily fit into the outline — going by the imprint, the Ancients had hands the size of a paddle, while their fingers were almost twice as long and had joints bending in different directions.
The blue line flashed, and I felt it grow warm. Got it!
A sharp screech made everyone leap to their feet. It repeated again and again, as if gears of a huge rusted mechanism were turning over.
Abbot: To me, everyone! Raid, assume battle formation!
Olaf: Abel, is it your handiwork?
At the same time, the floor of the Crossroads was covered with round cracks, bright blue light pouring out of them. The Kann-Elo signs written all over it were flashing the same color. Then the floor moved, breaking into multiple platforms. The Watchers ran toward Abbot, jumping over the cracks to reach safety at the entrance to one of the tunnels.
The thing that used to be Crossroads was shifting in various complex patterns, changing its form. The stone rotated around its axis in the blue radiance. Several more turns of the “Rubic’s cube,” and everyone stopped once again.
The Crossroads looked completely different. It had a circular platform in the center that held a strange contraption reminding me of an apple-shaped cage. The beams of the spherical mechanisms were riddled with glowing Kann-Elo characters.
Abbot: What is this?
Olaf: I don’t know, but it does look like a lift. Abel, check it!
As soon as one of the scouts crossed the border of the “cell,” we heard a sharp low sound. A refusal! Kann-Elo characters turned red and started to blink.
Abbot: Stop! HotCat, go first.
Unhindered, I climbed onto the platform and entered the device. As soon as I stepped inside, the red signs stopped flickering and once again glowed a pleasant blue color. The cage itself was made from strange metal, red with a green tinge, resembling ancient bronze. Its curved beams were strewn with hundreds of pictogram characters. In the center stood a mushroom-shaped pedestal with a handprint similar to the one on the wall.
Olaf: The Ancient Gene is in effect. Come in, but be careful.
The open sphere was big enough to accommodate all forty-seven Watchers with room for more. I thought that it could easily fit a hundred, at least. As expected, my presence allowed us to bypass the defensive mechanisms of the Crossroads.
Two of us possessed the “Kann-Elo Knowledge” ability. Elle, Fanboy’s pawn, was a professional archeologist. The other, to my surprise, was AlexOrder. That said, my friend was always full of secrets. Together, they studied the characters written in the language of the Ancients that were engraved on the other side of the cage, looking for the “Sin-Da” mentioned by Tormis.
“You’re asking what it means?” Alex answered my question. “Those are two different symbols, ‘Sin’ and ‘Daa’. ‘Sin’ is a two-digit number, while ‘Daa’ means ‘a wall, to build’. Together, they form a strange ideogram the meaning of which can only be hypothesized.”
Oh, smarty pants. The characters didn’t react to their touch, but as soon as I pressed any of them with my own fingers, they glowed bright blue, fading with a subsequent contact. Most of all it resembled an old touch button console. We seemed to have figured it out, it wasn’t too complicated, but we needed to be sure that we wouldn’t be teleported heaven knew where.
“Got it! Here it is, ‘Sin’. And that’s ‘Daa’, the one with a line above it. Press it, HotCat.”
Both icons flashed. The only thing left to do was to press “Launch”. With a solemn expression, I laid my hand on the handprint on the pedestal, making it light up. We heard a high-pitched sound, like the ringing of a bell. Suddenly, the beams of the cage started moving.
* * *
Illith: Tao, alarm! Are you there?
Tao: Yes. What is it?
Illith: The Watchers have activated the Crossroads. Some gismo has appeared, and they all went inside. Here’s a screenshot and a video.
Tao: Wait a sec. Whoa! Have you seen how it happened?
Illith: No.
Tao: So that’s how Hird moved from one end of the Paths to the other. I see. Illith, try following them!
Illith: How?! They’ll see me!
Tao: It doesn’t matter anymore. We need to learn where they’re headed and how this thing works. Can you do it?
Illith: I could try. If I don’t make it back, think of me as a hero.
Tao: A hero? If you don’t make it back, we’ll think of you as an asshole.
* * *
At the last moment, a lithe shadow slipped through the beams of the “cage”, turning into a leather-clad figure with a face mask. Illith! Our old friend! He had been trailing us, sneaking across cleared passages. The Watchers immediately pressed him against the floor.
“You were spying on us, scum!”
“Don’t yell at me, it’s not a free-for-all! Helt Akor’s for everyone. It’s just we’re going the same way,” the PROJECT fighter said with a grin.
“If not for our treaty, we’d cut you down on the spot.” The tip of a spear was an inch away from Illith’s face.
“So what’s the problem?” he smirked, glaring at us. “Come on, let’s finish it! I won’t even flinch, or you might miss!”
“Leave him, let’s figure it out later,” Komtur bellowed, and the Watchers reluctantly put their weapons away. “We can always kill him later. There’s no escaping it for him.”
In the meantime, the beams started spinning at such speed that they merged together into a solid glowing ball. The weird sensation of a fall took my breath away, making the contents of my stomach rise up to my throat, as if I was driving a car and riding down a steep slope. The rainbow fog that seeped in from the outside slowly dissipated.
The whirling started to slow down, and finally, the cage stopped spinning for good. Once again, we were at the Crossroads.
But this Crossroads was completely different! The contrast was clear: half of the Ancients’ lamps were dark, two of the tunnels had their entrances collapsed, while the remains of some odd mechanism were sticking out from the third. The floor was covered with a dozen waist-high metallic spheres made of the same reddish-green material as the beams of the “cage.”
Having delivered us there, the mysterious lift once again demonstrated its ability to transform and folded into the smooth floor. In a few seconds, nothing could remind us of the pedestal and the “cage” — it was an ordinary hub present on each Layer of the Paths.
“Tao’s trailing us,” Olaf quietly told Komtur. The latter nodded grimly, once again glancing at the HELL warrior.
“Well, ratling, what are you waiting for? Run!”
Illith kept looking around as he walked backward, then turned and dashed to the free passage, maneuvering between the odd metallic spheres. We couldn’t do anything to him, as the agreement with PROJECT forbade us any acts of aggression. Any violator would have to pay a million-gold fine and receive an oathbreaker debuff.
All of a sudden, the spheres shifted and started rolling, spraying out jets of steam. With a sharp click, their top halves opened up to release metallic humanoid bodies, their legs replaced with half-spheres. Their intimidating-looking crested helmets, round barreled shields, red embers in the eye slits — all of that was made from that reddish-green metal.
Olaf: Ancient Gladiators!
The raid instantly closed ranks, bristling with spears. The weird creatures — gladiators, as Olaf called them — were circling us at crazy speed, getting closer. Several chased after Illith, but the assassin, his moves smooth as water, managed to evade them and fled through a crack in the corridor obstructed by the wrecked mechanism.
The darts and arrows fired by the Watchers scraped against the metallic frames, not dealing any damage. Fire, a cloud of acid, hungry darkness — nothing seemed to faze the constructs. Icy Spear thrown by one of the mages only delayed them for a few seconds. How should we hit them?!
The first gladiator burst in
to the ranks of the raid like a battering ram. The force of its blow was enough to trample the line, pinning down several players. Two broad swords rapidly spun in its hands, blending into hazy circles. Three raid icons went dark one after another — someone got caught in the grinder. The other gladiators followed. At breakneck pace, they swept into the crowd, wreaking real terror. One turned up right next to me, its huge blade aimed right at my head — only to stop halfway. A second later, the bronze frame was rooted to the floor by the spectral links of the Rune of Chains.
“Tikhon, strike!”
Komtur roared and leaped at the ancient machine, swinging his glowing maul at its head. Apparently, his weapon had the Lightning Stone inserted, because the gladiator got snared in a web of electricity. With glee, I saw the enemy’s health bar decrease by a whopping fifty percent. Komtur, clearly in a sour mood, hit once again after spinning his hammer and finished the gladiator off, smashing its head into several pieces.
Abbot: Electric damage! Air mages, Nirvana, wake up!
That damage type worked. Several Great Lightnings burst into being, while thunderclaps made my ears pop. Abbot started marking targets, while the Watchers worked in concert. Tanks finally grabbed their targets. We stunned the enemies with ice, roots, or the rune, followed up by dealing electric damage. The gladiators got one-shotted and exploded, raining sharp parts on our heads. In five minutes, nothing reminded us of their existence except for bent metal and piles of shards. And to think that at some point, I had thought that the raid was on the verge of being wiped.
“What was it?” I asked Alex who was breathing heavily.
“The gladiators? The Ancients’ watch dogs. Those aren’t the strongest, even. Now a Steel Predator...”
Olaf: Wow, you guys are real brutes! You’ve blown them to smithereens. Be more careful, they drop Ancient Alloy and Crystal Hearts...
I picked up a piece of metal — a gladiator’s wrist. The reddish-green alloy was identified by the system as a Damaged Fragment, dull grey. Yeah, after such an onslaught, all valuable parts turned into trash.
“It’s an alloy of Edra and Fire Copper,” Alex said, pointing at the jade veins. “A wonderful metal. Only the Ancients could forge it. The one to find its recipe would gain a fortune.”
“It’s so good?”
“Haven’t you noticed? Nothing can damage it,” the rune master chuckled.
After collecting the loot, the raid resumed its position in the center of the hall. We needed to decide our direction. Four tunnels led out of the Crossroads, two of them caved in, as if by an explosion. The entrance to the third one was blocked by a strange device that partly continued into the corridor. It reminded me of the skeleton of a giant snake or lizard, its skin torn apart, with thousands of various cogs and gears inside, like a half-dismantled clockwork mechanism. Shuddering, I looked at our scouts sneaking by the colossal scythe-like blades, clearly extremely sharp.
Abel: It’s a Stonecutter! The Ancients used such devices to dig tunnels!
Olaf: Yep. I’ve only seen pictures of them. I’d love to take it apart, but we won’t be able to get them out of here. Alex, have you determined where we are? What Layer is this?
AlexOrder: No, we haven’t. I can only say that it’s below the thirty-seventh. Screenshots of Crossroads above that one are in the base, but not of this one.
Abbot: That goes without saying. This Crossroads wasn’t cleared. We’re the first to visit this Layer, guys!
Discovering a new area of the Paths was very cool. Usually, it was done only by clearing the Paths and the staircase — a slow and arduous process. We had used something like a cheat to get there, allowing us to both reap the pioneers’ rewards — unique dungeons, adventures, and items — and stumble on some ancient monstrosity sleeping in wait for uninvited guests. That said, I suspected that wasn’t Tormis’ intention when he told us the way.
Abel: In short, after the Cutter, it’s ordinary caves, a real maze. That’s where the PROJECT’s rogue fled. Hope someone will gobble him up there.
Abbot: What does the fourth passage lead to? Hey, Fanboy!
The scout who had gone to explore the fourth passage — the only one completely free to travel — replied,
Fanboy: It’s a long way, very long. There are traps. I’m circling around them. There are more gladiator spheres ahead, needs clearing.
Olaf: What does Search show?
Fanboy: Nothing behind the tunnel. Maybe a cave, a big one. My range’s not enough to see its borders. Two signals, both very strong, one inside of the other. I’ve never seen anything like this.
Olaf: Are they moving?
Fanboy: Nope, it’s clear. No movement signals. But neither Search nor Mental Search can detect the Ancients’ sleeping devices. We need to look with our own eyes.
The passage really was a long one. We spent ages clearing it and disarming the Ancients’ intricate traps. More and more metallic gladiators rolled out of the round holes in the walls, charging into battle, but we had already learned how to combat them. As bad luck would have it, I was assigned to the leading group. I was supposed to study the surroundings using See Unseen. I had already started to regret telling Olaf how I found the Crossroads’ trigger. One pleasant fact was that the Ancients’ self-reacting security devices didn’t aggro at me. Their IFF system didn’t consider me a foe. Olaf suggested I try to attack them myself. In that case, the gladiators did aggro, but only those that received damage from me. Made sense, really — otherwise, it would too easy, as I would simply kick down the unresponsive mobs.
The clock kept ticking, minutes turning into hours. In just six, a day and a night would pass since the battle against the Succubate. The demons would resurrect at their home respawn point and start hunting the crown — that is to say, me. I was wracked by doubt regarding that issue. Would they manage to find us in the depths of Helt Akor? Indeed, that morning, I had had a long and mindscrewing conversation with Olaf, trying to make him change the raid’s route. We touched upon the subject of the crown, too. Olaf was sure that it could be the pebble that caused a landslide, maybe even start an all-out war between the Netherworld and the Upper Worlds. I didn’t really want to go down in history as the instigator of such a large-scale event, but my pragmatic sense suggested that the Netherworld was home to lots of unique resources, and a war was bound to create their shortage in the Upper and Grey Worlds. The person who became the first to realize that and ride the wave would definitely make a fortune. I all but licked my lips imagining the profits.
In the meantime, the end of the seemingly endless corridor finally loomed in front of us. Mysterious green light shone from the triangular exit.
Abel: The exit is clear. Guys, it’s...holy shit!
Abbot: What’s that?
Abel: Come here, take a look yourselves.
I was one of the first to step outside and found myself on a narrow platform that was attached to the wall of a colossal cave at a very high altitude. The cave spread out before us in all its glory, astounding in its grandeur. And below us...
Someone next to me gasped in excitement. Someone cursed. Someone whistled. And I was just staring.
Way to go, Tormis! You rock, man!
Chapter 22
THE CAVE was truly gigantic in size. Its stone ceiling vanished somewhere above, its shape fading in the hazy clouds. Warm light fell on us. The walls were decorated with columns and clusters of a strange mineral resembling translucent bone, viscous greenish-blue substance flowing inside of it, like blood through veins. Entire rivers of that thing slowly coursed toward the group of buildings in the center of the cave, as if fueling it.
The architecture was characteristic of the Ancients: a hexagon of inclined walls with no entrance, a layered pyramid in the center — a ziggurat also serving as a throne for a giant statue. The head of that colossus that sat half-turned to us was on the same level as our eyes. I estimated it to be as tall as a nine-story building.
The area behind it looked especially
odd. From top to bottom, the cave was blocked by a wall made from either ice or frozen glass: an immense crystal that had a different structure inside of it, like a fly in a piece of amber. Through the murky surface, I could make out the outline of its front part — stairways, pillars...
Olaf: Effin’ A. An Ancients’ Ziggurat.
Abbot: Yeah. A Colossus, too.
Everybody burst into talking. “A stronghold,” “an ellurite deposit,” “edra” — I couldn’t understand anything. However, it was obvious that the second structure fused into the crystal by no means resembled the buildings of the Ancients. If anything, it looked like... Could it be? I opened the quest tab and checked the map. Yes! The area in front of me was glowing gold — Tormis’ legendary quest had to be completed right there. So was that the Grand Temple of Shadows that I had been commanded to liberate?
The Gene of the Ancients (Rogue Merchant Book #2): LitRPG Series Page 30