“I can see the mine!” Valia called back happily. The girl sped up and got to the vertical shaft leading to the heart of the planet first. As the intense blue color filled her eyes, she turned on her light filter, swam forward a bit, and found herself in the cave filled with crystals. The System had already finished absorbing the real material, turning the area into something formless and ugly, though it was still perfectly suitable for life. And that was good enough.
One after another, the group popped out of the water, collapsed on the ground, and almost instantaneously fell asleep. Their bodies were finally demanding payment for the resources they’d been using relentlessly. But there was a problem there, too—as soon as Tailyn made it into the mine, he was sucked downward. At the last second, he grabbed the edge of the hole, pulled himself back into the river, and looked down at Fang in frustration. The dagger had just about gotten its owner killed. The boy’s dragon helped, however—a few teleports got him out of the water and into the cave. And for the first time in a long while, the System had positive news for him:
You meet the leadership requirements.
Would you like to take charge of the experimental laboratory?
Tartila Mine will be yours.
Chapter 20
TAILYN TOOK A LOOK at the settings table that opened up and could only sigh. What had seemed like the perfect solution, holing up in the underground city, turned out to be a disaster. All that remained of Tartila Mine was the name—it was a stone shell that had somehow avoided being carried away by the winds of time. Everything was ruined, including the air, water, light, and bulkhead systems. Most of the corridors were filled in. Those still clear belonged to the ancient laboratory, which had nothing to do with the city. In fact, there was no canceling the changes that occurred in the underground city every hour without heading over to the next location.
Would you like to activate the Builders and Architect?
“Is there any point?” Forian asked. As soon as Tailyn had been handed the city, he’d given everyone their old positions. The treasurer checked the description of Tartila Mine and frowned. A rundown village on the outskirts of the empire would have been an upgrade over that miracle of ancient architecture.
Tailyn couldn’t answer the simple question. On the one hand, the machines would make things more comfortable in that moment. The exhausted and embattled group could rest. On the other, the enemy was aware of where the runaways were. Mark Derwin had cleared the tunnel and opened it up for day-and-night access, so Crobar killers were liable to appear at any moment. And neither the traps nor the changing walls were going to stop them.
“We have to get into the lab,” Valrus said. “The control center is big enough to hold us all, and there isn’t a destroyer, mage, or even emperor alive that can get through that door. It’s our shot at surviving.”
“Surviving, but not much more. How long are we supposed to sit around locked up like that?” Doom had crept into Valanil’s voice. “A day? Two? A month? It’s pointless!”
Everyone stared at the herbalist in surprise. Her iron will had cracked. While life in Mean Truk had given her some semblance of stability, with everything complicated but simple and clear, all of that had disappeared along with the city. Once again, she was faced with the necessity of starting over, and the worm of doubt was eating away at her weary soul. What was the point if they were just going to get wiped out by the enemy eventually?
The numericals looked down. Even the mages who had shown up with the dean weren’t sure why they were so far from their friends and family. In the faces of everyone there, a clear question was written: Wouldn’t it be simpler to turn Tailyn over to the emperor and live to tell the tale? And Tailyn couldn’t help but agree. If he’d been in their shoes, he would have been thinking the same thing. They were on the brink of collapse, and he couldn’t give them the slightest hope of salvation. He also couldn’t tell them he was planning on leaving the planet with Mark Derwin while everyone remaining behind him died. But that thought didn’t go unanswered, at least, not by Valia.
We can’t do it. These people have followed us to the very end because they believe in us. And I can’t betray that trust.
The planet is doomed. Either we leave with the Absorber, or we die with everyone else. There isn’t another option.
There’s always another option! I spent some time thinking about that while we were escaping from Mean Truk... Tailyn, I don’t want to leave with the Absorber. He’s no better than One. Remember, Derwin was prepared to destroy half of our world just to protect his partner, and it was only the fact that you can make those spheres that saved us. You want us to head off to other worlds and become monsters like that? If you ask me, we’re better off dying here and now.
The city trembled to announce the arrival of the destroyers. And nobody doubted they’d shown up with escorts. Just a few hours or even minutes later, Crobar assassins were going to come for the runaways.
“Valanil, you take control.” Tailyn activated the builders. Valia’s words had found fertile soil—he didn’t want to become another Mark Derwin, and that meant he needed to do everything he could to save as many people as possible. “Fit out the cave, stick bars on the river and the entrance. Shut this place down!”
“The destroyers will break through any bars you can install in the blink of an eye.” As always, Forian was skeptical.
“They won’t come through the river—they’re too big. In the meantime, you’ll stay here and organize the defense. The dean and Sadil are coming with me. We need to get to the next cave over. Here, you two need to read this on the way. Get to work! We’re almost out of time.”
Tailyn tossed the two men instructions on how to run the technical bots, which they were overjoyed to get. It had never occurred to either of them that there could still be ancient machines in the world.
What are you doing? Valia asked worriedly. She didn’t like how her betrothed had leaped into action—there was no explanation. From what she could tell, Tailyn had made some sort of decision, though nobody knew what it was.
“I figured out a way to save everyone,” the boy said as he shooed the dean out. The former head of the magic card department was speechless. After spending his long life dreaming of getting into the ancient laboratory and turning it upside down, he never could have imagined how everything would turn out. And when Tailyn asked him to read the instructions for a machine that seemed impossible, his veneer of imperturbability dropped away completely.
The robots? You do know they can’t save us by themselves, don’t you? There are only two of them, and too many of the enemy.
They can if they’re just the first line of defense. Here, look. This should work!
Tailyn had never tried to communicate with Valia using pictures, but that was the only way in that moment. He couldn’t put into words the plan he’d come up with. Still, that was enough. The girl instantly understood and, more importantly, accepted her betrothed’s decision.
That should work! she replied happily, after which she turned to everyone else. “Valrus, we’re heading out. You need to get me to the control center! Tailyn, share your map with me so I can see the traps.”
Just as had been the case the previous time, access to the other location was cut off. Tailyn’s perception told him how soon it would open up, and the news wasn’t the best—they were going to have to wait six hours. Even assuming it was going to take Valia and Valrus an hour or two to get where they were going, that still wasn’t going to do it. But they still had to go. If only to get out of Tailyn’s way.
The reptiloid wanted to mention something about how he would have been a much better choice as a pilot, though he held his tongue. Something was off about the young city heads. They weren’t behaving the way they usually did. Could they have really decided they wanted to survive? He needed to check and make sure. It was his chance at getting back into the game.
Even Valanil was spurred into action by Tailyn’s outburst. Glancing over at hi
m, she got to work demanding blueprints from the architect, the builders still not yet clearing the area of rocks or throwing up tents. Even Forian began studying the city’s financial reporting, trying his best not to think too much about what he was doing. It was pointless, after all.
“Don’t move,” Tailyn said, throwing his arms around the dean and using a few teleports to get past the cave-in and into the main hall. Immediately, the advantage of being in charge of the underground city was clear: he could see all the traps even though they’d been set by the lab. And that made moving around much faster—everyone else belonging to the city could see them, too. After a few jumps to pulled Sadil out of the cave-in, Tailyn ran over to the way out. The men followed him, only they were too late. By the time they got to the next hall, Tailyn was already climbing onto the first bot.
Code accepted.
New pilot parameters identified.
Congratulations! You now control technical bot TB-2035.
There was no problem activating the machine. After the access system didn’t trigger any of its channels, Tailyn entered the code from Lavr Nalin’s journal. The machine jerked as it kicked into action, though the System was right there to step in the same way it had on the previous occasion.
Ancient device earmarked for disposal detected.
You can get rid of it to free up system resources and earn a significant reward.
Would you like to accept the offer? You will be penalized if you don’t.
Tailyn even got a certain satisfaction out of hitting the red button—he was tired of being led around by the game. Decline.
You went against the god.
As long as you have ancient devices in your possession, you will be assessed the following debuff:
There is a 100% chance you will not receive loot from your kills.
Tailyn could only chuckle when he saw the new “punishment.” While the System had been at least pretending he had some chance of getting loot, it wasn’t standing on principle any longer. Jumping out of the cockpit, he leaped over to the neighboring machine, calling down to Sadil as he did.
“That bot is active, so climb in! You have at most five minutes to figure out how to drive it. By the time our guests arrive, you need to be ready to greet them.”
Tailyn’s eyes continually found their way to Raptor. Of course, he was aware the scanner was going to let him know the moment so much as a suspicious shadow appeared, only the boy’s nerves were giving him no rest. It felt like there had to be a hundred killers and destroyers around every corner ready to come crashing down on the defenseless group. But it was that paranoia that saved the boy’s life.
There was no issue with the second bot. TB-2037 surrendered itself to the dean’s control, and the head of the underground city earned himself yet another debuff. That time, the System went the easy route and just dropped all his parameters by three, nothing in comparison to what he’d already been forced to live through. Leaping off the bot, Tailyn checked Raptor one more time and suddenly threw his arms forward to create a barrier made of air. His perception had highlighted a section of the wall that hadn’t been there a few seconds before. Even still, the scanner continued showing nothing at all even when a stiletto blade emerged out of that nothing. The stinger sent flying by a Crobar killer would have had no problem penetrating the barrier if it hadn’t been for one problem—it wasn’t made completely out of real material. The cords tying the blade to the wood, not to mention the wood itself, had come from the world as it had been since the exodus, and they were what hit the wall of air. Another shot was fired. It failed to reach its goal, too. At that point, the invisible attackers realized the boy was above their pay grade and switched targets. Their next blade hit the robot’s covered cockpit. As sparks flew, metal screeched painfully, and Tailyn’s heart stopped before restarting a moment later at twice its usual pace. He was thrilled. Sadil called over from his seat in the bot under attack, not even bothering to hide the exultation in his voice.
“The stilettos can’t get through the glass! Tailyn, get out of the way—I can see the bastards.”
The ancient machine jerked and took a step forward. Stone crunched—the bot’s legs had been embedded in the rock floor. But then, the second bot took its first step, too. The dean was less emotional about his machine. Sparks flew once again, and Tailyn finally saw who they were up against, a few shadows separating from the far wall as the enraged machines bore down on them. Neither Sadil nor the dean could shoot since the bots didn’t have that kind of functionality. They could certainly crush, however, and crush they did. Blessed with incredible speed, even highly trained assassins were no match for them. A squelching sound broke out as the red dots disappeared, though no matter how close victory seemed, Sadil wasn’t buying it. While he wanted to, the same scanner didn’t have him feeling safe at all.
“Let’s get out of here. Tailyn, you head back. Either we’ll make this work, or you’ll need to protect everyone else without us. Two destroyers are two hundred meters away and closing in.”
“I’ll take the one on the right,” the dean said, and that was when Raptor finally showed Tailyn what had the pilots of the technical bots worried. Two large, unidentifiable shadows appeared at the edge of its scanning range and approached quickly. The boy backed away. In that enclosed space, he had no desire to take on the ancient machines, and they were moving straight forward, crashing through walls and paying no attention to traps. Sadil instinctively clenched his fist; his bot followed suit. From the way it looked to the old man, his time was up, and all he wanted to do was sell his life as dearly as he could. If he couldn’t take out the impregnable creatures, he was going to damage or at least slow them up. The steel dragons broke through the last wall and into the hall. Without a second though, they discharged their cannons, sending two plasma charges each at the technical bots.
For practically everything in the world, that volley would have meant certain death.
But only practically everything.
The cave lit up brightly before being engulfed in flames so powerful that the traps in the hall simply evaporated. The stone the bots had stepped out of did, too. But that was the end of it—the destroyers’ weapons weren’t strong enough to break through the protection Valrus had installed, making it no wonder why the reptiloid had been so proud of his creations. Three thousand years later, they’d proven the value of his investment. The destroyers paused. Clearly not expecting anyone to survive their point-blank attack, they permitted themselves the unthinkable: a few seconds of inactivity. Sadil and the dean had no such problems, however. Throwing their machines forward, they landed crushing blows on the heads of their opponents. The ground beneath them cracked as the steel beasts were driven into it. Over and over again, the technical bots smashed into the bodies in front of them, turning the aesthetic dragons into useless piles of scrap. The destroyer hulls didn’t hold up, popping like egg shells. And when they did, they sent fragments of what had once been considered impregnable creatures flying everywhere. Everyone in what was so far a city in name only had a message pop up in front of them:
You destroyed 2 non-level creatures.
All your attributes and skills were increased by 10.
Level +6.
“We have to fill in that tunnel!” Sadil said as he tried not to let too much happiness leak into his tone. “The exact same as we did on the other side to make sure we don’t get unexpected guests showing up.”
“On it,” the dean called back. He was having a hard time surprising his excitement, too. The power he had at his fingertips put his cards to shame. Suddenly, it felt like he’d been playing at children’s games with a stick, someone having just thrust a sword into his hands. And the sword came with a sledgehammer as well as a few dozen shields. The feeling was intoxicating, and the experienced man realized why the boy had chosen him—anyone else would have lost their mind over wielding that kind of power.
“Tailyn, you’re aware the city still has a functioning inter
nal network, aren’t you? Let me hook into it.”
Sadil was being careful despite the thrill. For him, the ancient technology wasn’t a novelty, though it still put him on edge. Who knew what kind of consequences using it could lead to? But while he started by consulting with the manual before doing anything, he leaned more and more on his intuition as time went on. The information Tailyn had given him wasn’t particularly comprehensive.
“Okay... The control block in the lab handles changes to the city. The traps, too,” Sadil said, informing Tailyn of what he already knew. But then, he followed it up with an unexpected question. “Should I turn them off?”
“Of course!” Tailyn even stopped, not yet having reached Valia.
Tartila Mine (The Alchemist Book #5): LitRPG Series Page 28
