＜ Episode 50 ＞
thud.
The short battle ended with the last competitor lying on the ground.
The eyes of the party, who had defeated their respective enemies without any damage, gathered on John.
Even though they were enemies that could be suppressed enough even if they were attached under normal circumstances, the battle was too easy.
No one denied that John’s contribution was the greatest, as he designed the battlefield for when the enemy was most vulnerable and unguarded.
None of them are less capable of actual combat than John.
It’s because there are only people who feel sorry for being compared to a kid who became a competent person in less than a year.
However, no one was able to design a battlefield that could minimize the damage of allies and overwhelm the enemy like John, and since they were all seasoned people, they realized that fact all the more.
Eyes full of trust.
At least in this dungeon, John had established himself as their leader.
Kwajijik.
Zhao, who peeked at Doyle carefully collecting useful implants, equipment, and parts from a disabled golem, opened his arms to John.
“It’s really great. Rumors that have spread in the market have not told you anything about you.”
John’s reputation as a fairly decent fixer and torturer, but that’s not what John’s true worth is.
“When this job is over, how about working with me? There are quite a few jobs that suit your aptitude.”
And Zhao is making the most coveted expression for such John’s ability.
From the martial arts used to the fighting style, Zhao, whose military color is deeply imbued with it, asked in a secret voice.
“It’s the first thing to get things done.”
After reloading with a calm expression, John lifted his revolver.
“yes! I know it’s coveted, but right now, this side’s priority!”
Lucas intervened between the two with a gleeful expression on his face, and Zhao clicked his tongue and turned his face away.
Lucas, who had been looking at Zao with a satisfied face, turned his gaze to John.
“Now, what do you plan to do next?”
“There is nothing special. We have to get in quickly.”
John’s gaze crossed the remains of the golem and looked down the path leading to the control center.
John’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the control center, which had a distinctly different shape from the surrounding ruins, and the neatly manicured road leading to it.
“Move forward while being careful of traps.”
After taking out the tablet and manipulating the screen, I projected the city near the entrance.
“…these guys.”
The smile on Lucas’s face was erased as he glanced at the screen, but a bloody spirit rose.
“I am moving forward quite cautiously. They fought loudly, so it’s not worth it. The urban labyrinth will buy us time, and the golems we’ve passed will ambush us. I don’t know the exact abilities of these guys, but it will probably take two or three hours to get here.”
No one in the group questioned John’s words.
“I don’t have that much time.”
John nodded at Peirung’s words.
“yes. It’s a tight fit to enter the control center and search the armory. If so, we have to pack the best we can and deal with the enemy or break away within that time.”
“Are you not going to kill me?”
John shook his head at Lucas’ words full of life.
“If this operation were an extermination war, we would intercept the enemy first, but that is not the case. Securing the target is the first thing.”
“It’s decided.”
Fioren took the place of Lucas, who showed displeasure with a lively face.
With Peirung and Zhao standing behind Fioren, who had no vicious face and had a friendly smile on his face, Lucas had no choice but to turn his head.
“Then let’s move on.”
“I will stand in the vanguard.”
Doyle, who had been rummaging through the remains of the golem for a long time, stepped forward, and everyone nodded and followed Doyle.
***
Passing through the road without much resistance and standing in front of the control center, everyone in the party made a puzzled expression.
The large door, which seemed to allow even multi-legged tanks to enter and exit, was firmly closed, and the center made of dark glossy metal had an appearance that did not seem to respond to any attack.
“···Are you sure. It is an adamantium coating.”
“I will turn.”
Everyone in the party frowned at the words of Fioren, who was looking at the door with a serious expression while touching it.
Adamantium.
Adamantium, one of the crystals of metal smelting made during the Great War, is a metal for people with great abilities.
It’s not that Aurora has high magical conductivity, and it’s heavy and hard, so it’s not easy to process, but this metal has only one ability.
It is an absolute match for various special abilities.
Adamantium, which has the power to ignore a lot of auras and magic, as well as to deflect sorcery and other abilities, was not widely used due to the difficulty of refining, but was notorious as a decisive battle weapon for those with abilities, but with such adamantium A coated door was blocking their way, so the option to break through was gone.
‘…There are also things like this.’
Even John’s ability to contemplate and manipulate the microscopic world was resisting, so it was clear that he was not infamous for nothing.
‘…Would it be possible to overlap boosters?’
It’s literally just resisting, so if you use a booster and overheat the output of the engine, you can somehow crush it, but there’s no need to do that.
Just when the party hesitated at the unexpected resistance, Doyle stepped forward.
“Doyle?”
“…is there a way?”
As Doyle approached the door without replying, he seemed to be knocking here and there, and then one corner of the door opened, revealing a sensor that emits red light.
“Hoo?”
Lucas narrowed his eyes and made a meaningful expression, and a strange expression appeared on the faces of the party.
Doyle held a sensor the size of a man’s fist in his hand, and Doyle plugged several wires into his arm to supply power.
jing.
The sensor met the sensor and the red light flickered, but a vibration was heard beyond the tightly closed door of the center.
Deed, etc.
It seemed that it hadn’t moved for quite a long time, and I flinched a little, but for a moment, the door that seemed to be impossible to break through cracked in the middle and started to open left and right.
The door that had been opened like that soon stopped moving, and only darkness existed inside the door, which was open enough for two people to enter shoulder to shoulder.
“…how did you do it?”
Doyle disconnected the wire from the sensor to Fioren’s question, who erased his friendly smile and put on a serious expression.
“It is a visual sensor separated from the golem. I got it because I was interested in it, but it seems to be using it well.”
“···yes?”
No one in the party believed Doyle’s answer, which was full of machine sounds and difficult to feel.
‘…I don’t care now that I hit the target, is this?’
Doyle, who had been obedient until now, stands in front of him, Fioren throws off his mask, Lucas, who casts a cool light instead of madness, and Zao, who begins to exude a restrained prayer that is a little different from Mu-in’s.
Only Fei-Lung was still holding on to the same attitude, and when John was organizing his thoughts about each other in his head while watching them, Lucas sneaked up to him and put his arm around John’s shoulder.
“hey. zone.”
“Tell me.”
“What do you guys think?”
It wasn’t that he had lowered his voice so much that the party could hear it, but no one reacted.
They set up a simple barrier to control the sound.
John opened his mouth, wary of Lucas’s magic, which is beyond his imagination.
“Not suspicious.”
“···yes?”
“Of course, you are the most suspicious among them. I’m a client, so I’m just holding on.”
“…quick-quick-quick. He’s a fun guy after all.”
At John’s words, which didn’t hide his inner feelings, Lucas grabbed his waist and laughed.
“It’s nothing to laugh about. Wasn’t this group gathered by you in the first place? How did you pick only these guys? At least, the only thing that looks the same is Peirung.”
Lucas met John’s gaze.
“I think I forgot you were included in that?”
John narrowed his brows at the coexistence of madness and coolness in Lucas’ eyes.
John also has a secret that he cannot tell others.
The secret he had was so foreign that he couldn’t tell anyone, so John didn’t really argue.
“···What. great. You’re suspicious as well, but you don’t seem to be the kind of guy I thought, so let’s move on.”
Lucas patted John on the shoulder and turned around.
“Look at the situation and judge well.”
John answered while watching Lucas’ back, assuming that something would happen.
“The request is not over yet.”
“great!”
With Lucas’s words of satisfaction, the surrounding energy subtly moved, and Fioren, who had approached before he knew it, opened his mouth.
“What were you two talking about? It makes me jealous.”
Lucas, who was smiling at the wary eyes and tone, was about to say something, but John opened his mouth first.
“It’s a request fee negotiation. Considering the commission fee I signed for the first time and the work I did, the payoff is not right.”
Lucas turned his head with a subtle smile, and Fioren, who looked at the two of them, also turned away.
“…well, we can’t talk about money.”
And Doyle’s voice stuck in their ears.
“There doesn’t seem to be any traps. It’s okay to go in like this.”
No one in the party did not feel the excitement and anticipation contained in the sound of the machine.
***
Pak. Pak. Pak. Pak.
With Doyle walking confidently, the group entered the center, and lights were turned on at each step of the group, illuminating the interior.
It was interesting to see the maintenance depots and golems that had not yet been assembled left unattended here and there. For a while, a fork in the road leading up, down, and left and right appeared in front of the group, who were advancing silently, and the group stopped.
“Hmm. The top is the control room and the bottom is the power room. Both sides are passages to the armory.”
Fioren, who cleared the dust accumulated on the wall, read the internal structure diagram, and a light flashed in the eyes of the party.
“What do we do? Shall we split up?”
Everyone in the party shrugged their shoulders at Lucas’ question.
It was best to separate for the sake of priorities, as the party wanted different things and there was not much time.
“I will go upstairs.”
“Then I must go down.”
Fioren answered Lucas’ words.
The most important thing to these two wizards is the data of this dungeon rather than weapons.
It was only natural to prioritize the power and control rooms from which data could be extracted.
“Then I go left.”
“yes? Coincidentally, I also wanted to go left, but I was right.”
Zhao answered as if he had been waiting for Doyle’s machine sound, and the party looked at him strangely.
“I am on the right.”
Everyone looked at John at Peirong’s words, and John knocked on his watch and said.
“You know I don’t have that much time, right? Even if you are in a hurry, we will gather here again within 20 minutes. That should be enough to prioritize.”
The two wizards looked dissatisfied, but John’s expression was firm, and as he watched the two disappear up and down after nodding inevitably, John also followed Feilong.
＜ Episode 50 ＞ End