The Gene of the Ancients (Rogue Merchant Book #2): LitRPG Series by Roman Prokofiev (ebook reader for comics .TXT) 📗

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