Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 117
Only Noblemtl
The soldiers who suddenly appeared from the treasure mountain were gleaming as if their entire bodies were plated with chrome. Of course, in this case, it was not silver-white, but gold.
Each soldier was not a threat. They were just automatons coming out of caves, so the explorers who roamed the primeval forests like it was their daily bread could dispatch them with just a little effort.
However, there was a problem with the fact that the guys could regenerate infinitely. Since they were born as humans, there was a limit to their stamina and magical power, so they were increasingly pushed back by the power of numbers.
“Should I just throw it away?”
“The door is closed, where are you going? Don’t think about anything else and grab at least one more!”
Unlike the explorers’ slumped shoulders, Allen’s group looked relaxed.
Alan and Taylor were never attacked no matter what they did, Zion was very skilled, and Shiva was very tough as a monk.
When a person has free time, he can turn away from himself and look outside. And Shiva, as a priest, was so full of compassion that he did not just watch someone being in danger.
“I will help those brothers.”
“Do as you wish.”
Taylor said, slashing the neck of a soldier who passed him by.
Before he could finish his words, Shiva broke through the soldiers’ formation with his body. Ignoring traditional weapons such as swords and spears with his shield and body, he kicked off the wall and jumped up to the ceiling.
Shiva took a big step and stood upside down on the ceiling. It seemed as if the direction of gravity had changed.
“bout!”
Just before he fell, he stretched his bent legs with a short cry. With the addition of his leg strength and gravity, he gained a terrifying speed. The light of divine power enveloped him.
Shiva crossed his arms in front of his head and fell down. The white meteor passed through the soldiers like a bowling ball.
Shiva returned, and the explorers he had helped followed him stealthily.
“Brother Alan, you’re too far ahead. Let’s move to the back.”
“I’m fine since I’m not being attacked. But the technique you used a little while ago must have been physically taxing.”
“Dwarves are naturally strong, and they have their mother’s grace, so they’re fine. The skill name is ‘Falling Star.’ What do you think?”
“···? Somehow, it doesn’t seem like a name that fits the clergy.”
I don’t know why, but I felt strangely uneasy. Just then, another soldier rushed in, interrupting the conversation, and Alan stood in front of Shiva, who was preparing to take power.
“Alan! Leave it to me and just get back!”
Taylor urged Allen to back off.
“You can’t miss the opportunity to observe this vivid mystery with your own eyes.”
He couldn’t break his stubbornness. Since the soldiers were allies anyway, Taylor understood and turned around.
Alan reached out to the soldier who was trying to pass him by. To be exact, the power suit that had input Zion’s movements was moving, and Alan was just a passenger.
A steel grip grabbed the soldier’s shoulder, and he kicked the shin of the man who tried to shake it off. The soldier’s body floated up and fell onto his back.
Jiiing!
Allen’s hands trembled. It was only a mimic of Zion’s waves, so it wasn’t destructive, but it was enough to dig inside and disrupt the flow of magic.
‘It’s a vibrating massager…’
Alan shook his head violently as he remembered what Taylor had said, and focused on the soldier.
The entity that had its arms grabbed only showed a weak resistance. Even in that situation, its head and weapon were always pointed at the other explorer.
When the Orc Explorer tried to ask the disguised Zion why he was doing that, he flinched when he cut down three or four people with a single sword and approached the monk Shiva. The Mother Church priest was merciless to the wicked, but to those who followed the rules, he was an angel.
“Why does the golden automaton ignore the powersuit explorer?”
“Brother, are you feeling well?”
“Thanks to the priest···.”
It wasn’t an empty promise, because I was saved by a strange attack that sent me crashing down through the ceiling.
“Don’t worry about that.”
“Yes? But if you know that method, other explorers will also be able to….”
“Where is the one who can reveal the secrets of magic?”
“Oh, I made a mistake.”
Allen also guessed that it was thanks to the training method, but how could Shiva know? Instead, he appropriately used the fact that it was taboo to ask about someone’s abilities in detail when they weren’t even close.
Alan was examining the soldier. The box was holding his two arms, and the leopard was sitting on his two legs.
‘It looks like it was cast by pouring gold into it, but when it breaks, it turns into a gold coin…’
It meant that there was a mystery in the gold coin itself. Or in the entire treasury.
Suddenly the soldier stirred violently, and upon closer inspection, I saw that one of his free hands was reaching for his dropped weapon.
When Alan raised his eyes slightly, he saw that the box was holding the soldier with only one claw, and was picking up gold coins with the other claw. He frowned slightly, and the box quickly blocked his arm.
When the operation is stopped, it turns into gold coins, so you can see inside the soldier while he is still alive.
‘I roughly checked how the magic power flows, and the device on the chest seems to be a transmitter···.’
Allen clenched his fist and pounded the soldier’s chest, or injected his magical power. Each time he did, the transmitter activated and sent the magical power downward.
‘It’s converting the shock into energy and sending it to something.’
Taylor asked, switching positions with Zion and stepping back slightly.
“Are you still doing that?”
“We’ve finished grasping the general structure. There’s something under the treasure mountain, so we’ll take care of the soldiers first.”
Even if you don’t know the full composition, the fact that the raw material of all mysteries is magic has always been a common truth. So when there is no other way, most of the problems are solved by blocking magic.
Alan sat up and thought back to the conversation he had had with Taylor on the ground.
‘Alan, why don’t you make a brain expansion device? It’s hard to squeeze your brain when doing calculations or drawing runes.’
‘Why is that difficult?’
‘Of course···. Um···.’
Taylor shook her head at the expression asking why she needed help, momentarily forgetting that Alan’s brain was different from her own.
‘There are many other uses. Although the efficiency is extremely low, if you mount it externally as an accessory, you don’t have to carry around a cumbersome communication terminal.’
‘Isn’t that it?’
‘You can just attach it to your power suit. I’m reluctant to attach it externally because of the risk of magic signal interception or interference, but how many wizards can break through your mental barrier?’
Hacking the brain extension device was harder than expected. Machines can be manipulated by touching the letters, but what about the brain? The human mind is more robust and complex than expected.
So Alan’s hacking was not about directly touching the extension device, but rather interfering with signals coming out of it or other magicware. But when you’re outside, it’s a different story.
‘A mental barrier? I guess there aren’t as many wizards like that as you’d think.’
‘If you have the mental power to overwhelm me, it would be faster to just burn me to death with magic.’
After constructive discussion, Alan created a secondary device instead of an extension. It was more expensive and less efficient than the one planted inside, but it could be used for small tasks.
In addition, it has another function: it is a shape-shifting alloy that changes shape according to the user’s will.
Originally, I was going to add blood to increase the suitability, but due to Taylor’s dissuasion, I only poured in magic power.
Because Alan had mixed magic power into it, the magic power concentration inside the warehouse was extremely high for a while. Thanks to that, Vito would complain about feeling heavy every time he came here.
There are many uses for shape-shifting alloys, but Allen had high hopes for one in the form of a magic circle.
[Penetration], [Corrosion], [Confusion], [Blocking]
The alloy inside the power suit changed its shape according to the owner’s will. The principle of the mana pulse grenade that destroys the magic circuit was improved and strengthened and contained inside it.
For a moment, the power suit glowed brightly.
“Come out of my presence.”
Alan’s calm voice pierced the eardrums of the explorers. The explorers pushed the soldiers away and opened the path, and Alan reached out his hand toward them.
Even without the wizard’s signature chant, Alan mentally repeated the name of the technique.
‘Silence’
In front of Alan, a blue light was shot in a fan shape. In the places where the light hit, no soldier rose. As the name suggests, it silenced the soldiers’ magic receivers and magic circuits. There were soldiers who were out of range, but they were very few.
Taylor nodded proudly at the sight.
“This is magic.”
“It’s not magic because no imagery is added.”
“That’s it, in my eyes.”
While the two were talking, the soldier completely disappeared and the sealed door opened.
Two Roman explorers, who had been keeping an eye out, ran toward the door. One made it through safely, but the other did not.
A zigzag beam of light struck the dwarf explorer, deleting the person who was struck, as if it wasn’t just lightning.
Clang!
In the place where the explorer was completely wiped out, clean gold coins fell down.
“It’s not a treasure trove, it’s a trap.”
“Sir, your pockets look full. I’m sorry, but please throw away the gold coins.”
As a veteran explorer, Taylor took only enough that it would not interfere with his movements.
Shiva’s beard was clearly burnt while fighting the wizard, but when he burned it, gold coins rained down, jingling.
Zion had no interest in gold in the first place. As someone said, he was a fool who only knew the sword.
Jangle jangle!
I looked at the place where the unusually loud noise was coming from and saw a box pouring out gold coins. The falling gold coins sparkled in the light.
“Alan, are we going to be okay?”
“······.”
“Okay, okay.”
There was no need to risk one’s life in the experiment.
“I have to exert my strength first, so I will give it to others···.”
Alan turned his head to ask for help, and found an explorer from Roman’s crew being interrogated. They surrounded him and growled at him, so he started talking without any further procedures.
“I opened the door and that’s what happened. I really don’t know anything else!”
“Did you know you’d be trapped like this? Think about it, you too. If you found a new door, would you just look at it? Would you not open it and give it to someone else?”
The last remark was also sympathized with by the explorers, so they maintained their hostility but did not inflict physical harm through torture or violence.
Not only did he not attack, but he also neutralized or removed the magic wear. When the equipment was removed, his confidence seemed to have dropped along with his size.
“Brothers! Stop that and listen to what I have to say!”
Dozens of explorers paid attention as Shiva shouted. It was the result of his calling as a priest and his actions.
“What are you trying to say, priest?”
“Please look this way instead of me.”
“Without the gold, you can pass through the treasure vault door, but that’s it. The pyramid is still buried underneath, and escape is difficult.”
“That’s true. Air is created on its own, so it doesn’t matter, but food is the problem.”
“I looked at the soldier earlier···.”
Suddenly someone shouted, cutting off Alan’s words.
“That’s right! The soldier said he didn’t attack! Didn’t that guy lure us in?”
“Are you saying that the explorer tampered with the labyrinth?”
“Yeah! Oh no!”
Someone hit the back of the head of an explorer who was expressing doubt.
“Does he look like a collector to you? Let’s say he’s a collector in disguise. What can we do?”
With those words and Shiva’s good deeds, the suspicions quickly subsided, and Sion put away the sword he had taken out.
Alan continued with a calm expression.
“It was a reasonable suspicion. I can’t confirm it now, but there was some kind of transmitter inside the soldier that would convert magic energy into energy and flow down whenever he received an impact.”
At those words, the explorers looked down at the bottom of the treasure mountain. Alan’s words were clear.
‘Start digging now.’
The treasure vault suddenly turned into a construction site. Normally, looking at the piled up gold would have given me strength I didn’t have, but now it was just bread drawn in a painting.
Shiva worked harder than anyone else. Seeing him, the other explorers were encouraged, but Alan knew the truth. He was just happy because he had a lot of gold.
Dozens of explorers who were wearing magicware or practicing magic powers were hanging around, so the treasure mountain quickly moved. It was now a shape that should be called a basin rather than a mountain.
Bang!
The explorer’s fingertips, who was pushing the gold coins with both hands like a dog, collided with something hard. It turned out to be a golden golem in the shape of a dragon that looked to be about 4 meters tall.
Taylor laughed at the sight.
“If things were as they were, I would have had to fight him. The guards are secretly ignoring the pattern.”
Taylor, who was waiting for an answer, realized that the seat next to him was empty. Alan was already near the golem.
End