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

faction leader NPC with a good deal of health was annihilated on the stop. Should I go for it? I looked at the timer. There was still 1 hour 15 minutes until the Warrior cooled down from the last use.

Earth shook under my feet, and crushed stones began to grind. I turned around. The Colossus had stood up from its ziggurat throne and was walking toward us.

As a kid, I used to love the Tremors-inspired Japanese disaster movies, those with skyscraper-sized monstrosities coming out of the sea and razing coastal cities to the ground. Tanks, aviation, artillery, all the king’s men — nothing could even scratch it. Anyways, a metallic monster of similar proportions was coming right up, and stone boulders burst open under its feet.

* * *

 

Olaf: Cat, (censored), what have you done?!

 

Abbot: Raid, to battle! Mark up. Let’s try all together, electric damage. On the count of three. One...two...three!

 

Olaf: It’s useless! We can’t even dent it!

 

Abbot: Try to find out where to hit. Weak Spots, Know Essence.

 

Damian: Know Essence doesn’t work!

 

As it walked up, the bronze giant lifted a foot and stomped, raising clouds of dust. The stone floor of the cave trembled as it was covered with a web of cracks. The shockwave knocked everyone down, inflicting Stun and Daze on half of the raid. Blinding white rays shot out from the Colossus’ eyes, taking down a dozen players at once.

Abbot: Attention! Everyone, retreat! Scatter! Assemble at the exit of the cave!

Everyone darted off in various directions, while I headed to the looming pyramid of the Ziggurat. Our only chance for salvation was inside.

Thankfully, the bronze giant didn’t chase after me, busy with obliterating the raid. Abbot made the only correct decision, ordering everyone to run and try to leave the aggro zone. We couldn’t do anything to that monster — the strongest of our spells hadn’t even scraped it. Earth shook from the blows dealt by the Colossus as it crushed the raid, dust and slivers falling down from the walls and the ceiling of the cave. Oh, let it all crash down, for God’s sake!

For the third time in the last hour, I flew into the Ziggurat. The stone plate of the central entrance dropped down behind my back. Up, I had to go up!

In the hall at the top of the pyramid, I stopped before the glass edra throne holding, as before, the dead Ancient. I focused on the invisible band lying on the stone pedestal to the right.

?????

 

I reached out. I had only one chance of identifying the item — using the ring given to me by Green. If I succeeded, I would be able to put on the band, and if my guess was correct, gain the ability to control the Colossus. The pose of the enthroned dead man matching the pose of the seated Colossus, Kann-Elo runes translated by Alex — everything proved it.

The only problem was that using the Ancient’s item without permission could make the Ziggurat’s guardians turn against me. Those outside, Steel Predators and the rest, couldn’t get into the room. I only had to deal with those inside. I didn’t think there was a lot of them; the Ancients’ defense system was designed to repel outside attacks. I touched the hilt of Aelmaris. Hopefully, my flaming sword wouldn’t fail me.

I could hear booming thunder and noise from outside the cave. The icons of players in the raid went out at catastrophic steed. Going by the panicked conversations in the Courier chatroom, the metallic giant was trampling, burning with his fiery gaze, and stunning the Watchers, who were trying to flee. There was no resisting it.

There was no time to think. In several minutes, the raid would be destroyed. I grabbed the band, immediately activating Identification. Oh Green, you have no idea how you helped me with your ring!

Gotcha! The band got identified, I saw its stats...and right at the same moment, the sound of alarm went off across the Ziggurat, a deep low sound, as if someone plucked at the top chord of a guitar. Blue glow shrouded the outer walls of the building, covering the arrowslits with a trembling veil. Was it something like an outpost’s defensive Dome? I was cut off from the outside by the impenetrable shield, but that was actually pretty good. At least the Steel Predators and the other beasts guarding the Ziggurat wouldn’t get to me.

Fortunately, I didn’t need any additional control skills; the band and the throne were enough. Still, I couldn’t do anything, as a metallic clang came out from the entrance and the staircase: the Ancients’ guardians inside the pyramid had finally woken up.

The blade of Aelmaris shone brighter with every second. Balabanov had said that it was a key, a developer weapon allowing the user to survive in a hostile environment. It was time to put that into practice.

The monstrous head of a steel spider showed up in the corridor. Two of its front limbs were raised, like the legs of a praying mantis, an emerald glow flared up on its moving mandibles. Scarlet beams blazing out from several eyes at once unfailingly intersected on me. I wasn’t going to wait until the creature did something nasty and hit it with a Fiery Lightning, taking it down, only to see more and more spiders climb the stairs in its place. I spent all twelve of my daily charges transforming the Ancients’ guardians into melted puddles of metal. Disappointingly, the lightning bolts didn’t destroy the spiders for good, even despite dealing critical damage and ignoring any resistance. Continuing to rain down blasts of true fire at the crawling bodies, I leaped forward to finish off the resilient beasts.

It looked like I was done. The wrecked entrance and the two top flights of stairs were cluttered with piles