Chapter 18

Red Sands Desert, Contested Border Region.

Abandoned Site Seraph, Sagitarius Imperial Installation.

Dungeon Factory, 1st floor.

Artok frowned as he looked at the massive room, and the 18 golems guarding it.

The first puzzle room had been, as expected, a bit of a joke. They already had the solution, but just in case he had his teammates record the symbols in the previous rooms, just in case the answer had been changed. It hadn't.

Following that, they had encountered two more rooms before this one. The first had 5 of the slow, clumsy golems, and 3 of the fast, vicious ones. One of the iron ranked he had sent in had gotten her wrist broken when instead of dodging, one of the nimble golems had had grabbed her arm and proceeded to disarm her. In fact, if one of her teamates hadn't thrown his axe into the golem's head, the thing might have made the term literal. Fortunately, the wounds she'd suffered were nothing a couple of healing potions couldn't fix, and although her wrist was still stiff -potions were rarely able to fully heal any damage taken, hence why simply constantly drinking potions wasn't viable. The 'potion fatigue' eventually got you killed- she was still capable of fighting.

The room right after that had contained 5 of the damned golems, and he'd been unreasonably lucky that none of the irons he had sent had been seriously hurt. Oh, they'd gotten some bruises and one had gotten a nasty blow when he had been thrown onto the ground, but nothing truly problematic. Then again, the realization that what had happened to Edwards wasn't a fluke had probably helped teach them some respect for their enemies' lethality.

And now this.

He sighed, and got up.

"Alright! This is getting serious at last. I was told you all wanted a challenge? Well you're going to get one. Me and my party will hang back. Everyone else, you have free reign to kick some ass. Just try not to get killed." He chuckled. "I've been resurrected, and let me tell you, it's not a pleasant experience. Well, it is more pleasant than being, you know, dead, but still, not the greatest."

Several of the adventurers politely chuckled, while the iron ranked, particularly those that had almost gotten beaten by the fast golems, let out strained smiles.

"Alright then! What are you waiting for? Show them what you're made of!"

He raised his axe in the air, and they reciprocated the gesture, yelling out a warcry, before charging into the room. He nodded in approval when they automatically assumed their own roles and positions. Trying to organize such a number of low level adventurers in a coherent formation would have been an exercise in futility. Not that positioning wasn't important, but they weren't trained in unit tactics beyond a 6 person party at best, and he'd learned quickly that trying to force them to adopt unfamiliar tactics was a recipe for disaster. Better to let them dissolve into 2 to 3 clumps fighting like they were used to rather than trying to herd them into a single formation.

He watched critically, slightly tensed in case he had to intervene to save some of them. Overall, they were doing very well. The initial charge and the first volley from the ranged combatants had taken out 3 golems outright, mostly thanks to the steel ranked. But as the initial impact faded, they began to coalesce into two groups as the golems started to force them into formation. He was stroking his beard thoughtfully when a scream rang out.

His head snapped to the side, and he had a second to see Jarok fly through the air as one of the fast golems threw him out of the way, and lunged for the sorcerer that had been hiding behind him.

The sorcerer screamed in panic, and raised his staff....and Artok's eyes flew wide, and he began lunging forward as the chunk of Agate at the tip of it began to glow with intricately engraved runes...and a fireball formed in front of it.

"NOOOOOOO!" He yelled as his feet pushed against the ground and it cracked beneath him as he activated the ability embedded into his war axe, windstep. Instantly, he felt the air shift around him as it seemed to carry him forward at seemingly impossible speeds (for a dwarf at least).

But he wasn't fast enough.

He closed in eyes in reflex as the fireball detonated. He felt the flames lick his face as he surged through the dissipating explosion, and he stopped, precisely where the mage had been...And looked around him, absently patting his beard to snuff out the tiny flames that had taken hold.

Fortunately, the sorcerer didn't seem to have been able to afford a good staff, a corner his mind noted with detached coolness as he processed the carnage. Out of the 6 adventurers that had made up that particular clump, 4 were down, and the remaining two were only up because they were either out of the explosion radius or had possessed a fire resistance enchantment on their armor. Jarok being the former and Martin the later. He kneeled by the side of the closest one, the one that had gotten her wrist broken, and checked her pulse, and sighed in relief as he felt her heartbeat. A few more checks, with the help of the rest of his team, relieved him. None of them were dead...but none of them would be going anywhere without a healer. And a pretty good one at that. And the sorcerer in particular might wish he was dead by the time he was done with him once that delve was done.

He looked at the faintly breathing, and badly burned adventurers as his teammates stabilized them by splashing their skin with healing potions and balms, before turning around towards the rest of the group, who had finished their own golems, and were standing a few meters away, shocked and unsure of what to do. He sighed.

"Alright. Everyone group up, we're bringing them back to the entrance. We could probably bring them back up, but they wouldn't be capable of going forward with us...and those kind of measures take a toll on the body." He sighed again, and put his hand through his slightly singed beard. "And I'm afraid that this is where it ends for the iron ranks. Sorry lads, but this." He pointed at the burnt adventurers. "Means that you'll be too few to be anything but an hindrance...and continuing will only put you at risk for not much. So go home. We'll escort you out, and you'll get the others to the healers. Got it?"

The shocked adventurers nodded, and he firmly nodded back.

It was a grim march back. Not because they were mourning, the adventurers would recover, not fast, and not without costs and pain, but they would recover. But because they had realized that it could have been them...and that 'dungeon delving' was a lot more glamorous when you weren't carrying the carbonized, rasping bodies of your comrades.

*****

Alexandra winced as she looked at the aftermath of the fireball, before calmly walking the handful of golems she had rebuilt to save and kick out the clay ranked idiot into a freshly dug side hallway, and closing it behind them. There was only a handful of them, and she would only be loosing mana if she threw them at the adventurers. Besides, they might ask questions about why only just these fews had been remade.

"You don't seem that shocked."

Alexandra looked at Emilia, and shook her head.

"No, I guess not...I've seen plenty of burn wounds in my time. Like they say, 'it's better to take a direct hit than a glancing one by a plasma gun'. And I had a fire mage in my party here. She had a tendency to throw fireballs at every problem, and I saw the result firsthand on humans. Besides, they did this to themselves. Literally. I can't believe that sorcerer was stupid enough to do that!"

Emilia shrugged -glossing over the fact that she had no idea what a 'plasma gun' was, to avoid getting her dungeon core into another one of her rants on technology-, and took her grimoire out of her pouch, waving it around a bit.

"It happens, unfortunately. The most dangerous things for adventurers aren't the enemy, it's panicking teammates. A fighter that runs away can leave the ranger exposed, or a ranger shooting wildly can hit one of their teammates. Of course, magic casters are the more destructive ones. Although usually that destruction applies to themselves for mages, due to miscasts."

Alexandra nodded. She hadn't seen a single miscast yet, but given the way everyone spoke about them with a look of horror on their faces, it must be pretty brutal.

"So, do you think they'll give up on the challenge room?" She asked her advisor.

Emilia giggled.

"The assault guild? Not a chance in hell! Oh, they'll be cautious, but if you expect them to waver at the last minute, no, they won't. Why would they? Now they're rid of their liabilities, and they can finally focus on the good members of their expedition. Remember, we haven't seen the copper ones truly fight yet."

Alexandra nodded.

"That's a fair point. Well, I guess we'll see."

*****

"Alright. Everyone ready?"

The others nodded, and Artok nodded back. They had just finished the room right after the one with the fireball incident. It hadn't been that hard -and the trap in the hallway had been childishly easy to evade-, but that was mainly because Sorior had dissolved into a blurr of motion when they had begun then engagement, and 5 of the golems simply hadn't even gotten to take more than 3 steps forward. The rest hadn't fared much better when the frontliners had made contact. All in all, it had been overkill, but that had been necessary. The 2 remaining steel ranked adventurers -one had to be evacuated from the fireball explosion, although he had woken up and was fully conscious by the time they had handed him over to the healers- had badly needed a morale boost, and seeing the golems crumple before they'd even gotten a hit in had made the trick.

"Yeah!" The adventurers yelled back, and he smiled, and started walking down the corridor towards the challenge room.

The panel above the room itself said that it was recommended for copper ranked and above, but there was no way he was leaving the steel behind. The blow to their newly restored morale would have been enormous...And honestly he could use them to decide if the room truly deserved such a dire warning. Certainly, the assessment team's report didn't make it nearly as fearsome as the sign advertised. Then again, they were a mythril ranked party, so they might have had some trouble properly ranking the fight properly for lower ranked adventurers.

After a few seconds, they entered the room, and fanned out.

"Alright, remember, they'll fall from the ceiling. So.Be.Careful. And watch where you throw your spells." Everyone nodded, and he nodded back, before turning towards the altar with the button on it, just like the assessment team had said.

'Do you wish to accept the challenge?' Read the engravings on the altar. The button on top was simply engraved with a big 'Yes'. He chuckled, and pressed the button. At least the dungeon seemed to have a sense of humor, if she was bothering engraving the buttons. That or she thought adventurers were idiots.

He turned around, and took position in the loose defensive cordon around the spellcasters. He just had the time to stop before the ceiling seemingly shattered, and a wave of golems dropped alongside the debris.

He swung his axe instinctively, and severed one of the golems in two before it even hit the ground. Then he swung again, decapitating another as it recovered from it's fall, and dodged out of the way of a clumsy punch, moving his war axe and taking out both legs of the construct trying to attack him, before smashing it's head in with his steel boots as he paried the blow from another, and cut it in half. Then he whirled to his right to engage another, and stopped as it froze, and dropped to the ground, an icicle firmly embedded in it's head.

He nodded in gratitude at the steel ranked mage, who nodded back, and looked around.

"Everyone okay?"

The rest of the adventurers nodded or signified their well being.

"Alright, sit tight! This is only the first wave!"

A few tense, tens of seconds later, another series of shaft in the ceiling opened, and another waved hurtled towards the ground. This one proved even easier than the last one, and he had already killed two of them before they were even able to retaliate, and the third one had barely gotten up when a thrown dagger took him out.

"Well...This is pretty easy so far." Said Sorior has he took the time to recover some of his weapons.

Artok winced.

"Don't jinx it."

"Right."

They retook their formation, and prepared for the next wave. A few tens of seconds later, it came.

Artok swung his axe once again, and jumped back as his weapon was deflected by something. He truly looked at the golem that had just fallen through the ceiling, and he remembered the report about the shielded and armored golems....and he brutally realized that they might not just be a more heavily armored and armed version of the others.

He stepped forward, and swung, and once again the golem simply deflected his attack. The dwarf frowned, and charged forward, intent on sundering the construct's shield in half.

His axe bit deep in his enemy's shield, and his nascent grin of satisfaction died as the golem brutally reminded him of the difference between it and a living opponent. A living, breathing enemy would have had the wind knocked out of them by such a powerful attack, and their arm would have been growing numb from the blow, and they would have been rearing from the impact and the pain.

The golem didn't, and Artok moved his head aside just in time, his eyes widening as he felt the spear leave a shallow cut along his cheek as the golem struck. He ripped his axe out of the golem's sundered shield, and made a full 360 turn on himself, gathering momentum for his blow.

The golem brought up it's spear to try to parry, and the room was filled with the clangor of snapping metal as his axe broke it in two. He jumped back, and stared at the golem as it simply looked at it's weapon, then shrugged off it's sundered shield, took a fragment of it's spear in each hand, and charged the dwarf.

The copper ranked adventurer gritted his teeth, and went to meet his foe, absentmindedly swinging his axe to the side to cut in half one of the fast golems, who was attempting to intercept him. He inhaled, and yelled a warcry as he swung at the golem with all his might.

And to his surprise, the golem jumped over his axe...and threw the head of its spear.

Over Artok's head.

His mind had barely processed the implications as his axe licked back and finally hit the golem, biting deeply in the construct's armor in a shower of sparks. The golem tried to fall back, but he pressed his advantage, and hit it again in the same spot, biting deep inside the machine, who froze, and then collapsed.

Artok wrenched his axe from the construct's body, and turned around....and froze.

Apparently, the iron golems weren't just better equipped and smarter. They were also coordinated.

He stared at the immobile form of the steel ranked magic caster, and grabbed his comrade's arm as she tried to assist her companion, and softly shook his head. He knew a dead adventurer when he saw one....and having a spear driven through the head very much qualified. He looked around, and realized that the two other spears -including the damaged one his golem had thrown- on the ground around the mage had been intercepted, most likely by a shield or protection spell.

Gods. They managed to bamboozle all of us just to get a clear shot at our most vulnerable member....and overwhelm him, he thought as he softly started to drag the last steel ranked adventurer towards the exit to the challenge room.

Suddenly this dungeon looked a lot less like a newborn one to him.

"Come on. We have to let the dungeon resurrect him. We'll recover the golems later." He said to the struggling fighter, and looked her straight in the eyes. She hesitated, and then nodded, before leaving the room, quickly followed by the rest of Artok's team.

The assault guild leader took a look back at the room, and left. At least he was fairly sure the adventurer would be resurrected...but he had been resurrected himself. Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't just a 'poof, you're alright now!' spell. Yes, it brought you back to life, but your body had still been dead for a while. The experience could only be compared to having suffered cancer without a healer or priest curing it, and then being rid of the illness at and advanced stage...but the damage still stayed. There was a reason why armies didn't simply raise their soldiers on the battlefield and sent them forward. Someone who had just been resurrected, depending on their strength and willpower, might be able to hold a weapon. Most could walk, more or less. But none of them, perhaps except very highly ranked ones, could fight just after being resurrected. Even less go dungeon delving, at least not without a lengthy visit to the healers beforehand, and some serious recovery.

*****

TARGET TERMINATED.

Alexandra absentmindedly dismissed the notification, and she turned towards Emilia.

"Well, now we know the coordinated spear throw works." She looked at her interface, and smiled slightly as she saw her essence go up. "Ready to try this whole 'resurrection' thing?"

The vampire girl smiled.

"Of course! Although you might want to use CQ, just in case. She should be back to her room in time, given the rate at which they're moving. You should definitely absorb his stuff though! Finally, a properly equipped mage and not some dumb wannabe core thief!"

Allya laughed at her advisor's enthusiasm. While she didn't really like killing the adventurer, his death had been painless, he was killed in straight combat, and he had a bunch of stuff that could prove useful. Besides, at least she'd get to see how a resurrection worked.

She took over her boss' body, and started walking her into the trapped hallway, smiling as she saw the vampire girl positively sauntering towards the resurrection chamber (which was just the experiment room), and sped up to catch up with her.

Today was turning out to be a great day. At least for her. She rather doubted the adventurer who they were about to resurrect would necessarily feel the same after she absorbed most of his stuff. But hey, she was bringing him back to life after all.

*****

"Captain Calder, sir?"

"Mmmhhh? Oh, lieutenant! I was lost in my thoughts. Yes, what is it?" Said the ork as he tore his gaze away from the glittering lights of the dungeon's entrance. He had quite the view from the quarterdeck of his ship, as they slowly patrolled the edge of the mesas, looking for potential wasteland monster attacks.

The lieutenant came to attention.

"Sir! The lookout reported what seemed to have been a balloon from another airship. West of us and moving north, apparently."

Calder frowned. He wouldn't have been surprised if an airship had been sighted southwest of them, that was where the normal trade route lay after all, and even if airships rarely took it, some did from time to time. But straight up west? That was highly unusual, especially how close their point of origin would have been to the Lost Sands if they were moving north.

"Make a note in the ship's log, and have the lookout continue searching, and alert me immediately if that vessel is seen again. Warn the next watch as well to do the same."

"Aye aye sir! Make a note in the ship's log, continue searching, and alert the next watch!"

Calder nodded, satisfied, and the lieutenant walked off to carry out his orders. The ork captain frowned as he went over in his mind what scenario could push a ship to take such a heading...and didn't really like the answers. Maybe he was being overly paranoid, but he had been an experienced ship captain before he convinced Elkaryos to help fund the construction of the Alberta, and that experience had neither been bloodless, nor something he was especially proud of. And his old instincts were telling him that if he wanted to approach undetected while minimizing risks of actual danger from the deeper parts of the wasteland, that would have been precisely the heading he would have taken. That was precisely the type of heading he had taken on occasion actually, now that he thought about it.

He sighed and shrugged. Maybe he was just being paranoid. Still, it paid to be prudent. And if nothing else, he could use it to keep his skyers and marines on their toes. They were in a wasteland after all, some increased vigilance couldn't hurt.

*****

"Alright, listen up!"

Heads turned and conversations died as the heavily armored man with sergeant stripes on his shoulders entered the compartment.

"We're approaching the drop-off point. According to the lookout there's at least one ship in the air. Big bastard, a heavy cruiser at least according to her. We don't know if they saw us and I don't intend to find out. As such, we'll be disembarking early, and making our way to the rally point by foot. Saphire, Ruby, got your maps?"

His corporals nodded, and he grunted in satisfaction.

"Good. Then Ruby, take your section, you'll be going first. Take a direct route to the rally point. Saphire, wait 5 minutes then disembark, and take the southern route. I'll take Onyx and go through the northern route. Any questions?"

A hand shot up, and the sergeant had to suppress a sigh. Lapis, their mage, was a fine lad, but he had a tendency to worry about everything and anything."

"Yes, Lapis?"

"Uh, I was wondering if we, uh, should be using our cloaks for the approach?"

The sergeant blinked. That was...a pretty fair question actually. They cloaks of invisibility (a very grand name for something that just blurred their image and helped them blend into the background) would indeed be perfect to avoid being spotted while approaching the camp....but at the same time they were finicky, and very hard to maintain.

"No. Just try to avoid cresting the tallest dunes and don't light lanterns. Any other questions?"

The sergeant nodded after a few seconds, as no one answered.

"Excellent! Now move!"