The massive Techdragon slammed its gigantic paws on the ground, making the metal platform shake, its vibration arriving even on the winding-down platform.

I stood there, immobile, “as a dead fish”, Alistar would say.

My frozen body didn't seem to want to move; it was the buzzing.

It had bypassed the spiking state and froze me entirely.

I couldn't move a muscle, and it had never happened to me.

"Hey, armor," said one of the Kobolds, "your boy froze. Too much metal on his flesh."

Harlow hadn't noticed it, but she reacted right away.

She hit my clock-arm with a hand cut; she did it very gently, precisely.

My arm and her armor resounded with a screech of metal upon metal that vibrated through my whole being, and it slowly brought me out of my metal-induced freezing.

"What in the Abyss happened!?" I found myself shouting as I almost collapsed to the ground.

"I'm sorry, I should have told you. It's the call of the tech. Dad taught me how to fight it; I didn't think we would ever need it actually; who would have thought we would face those creatures already."

"The call of the tech? Just what is it?" Did she mean The Call of the Metal? That ability I had seen on the Dragons' Tracing?

We suddenly felt a huge crush, as if a heavy metal body fell to the ground.

When we turned toward the sound, we witnessed Noland's group coming out of their battle stance and heading toward us.

They had just killed the Technostego.

"Come on, Noland, that was ours…" said the Kobold with the spear.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Drick!" Noland said.

Drick, the one with the spear, let it fall back on his shoulder, "Alright! How you doing!?" He said, joyously shaking Noland's arm.

Delvers were crazy…

Yet Noland addressed me, "Call of the Tech, or Call of the Metal as Jamie likes to call it," Noland began, only to be interrupted by Jamie.

"I don't like to call it; that's literally its name."

"Yeah, that's actually its name…" I concurred with Jamie for the first time.

"See?" He said, pointing at me.

Noland waved his hand, "Whatever, anyway, the two Dragons here can control all the tech creatures of the Dungeon outskirts. They are a dangerous bunch."

"I can see that, but it doesn't explain why I froze like a stone."

"Complex clock-tech like the arm and leg you wear is highly susceptible to it. It affects the Crystal inside of it. You should change those Crystals in their sockets with Dark Crystals, or it'll keep happening."

"Is that true?" I asked Harlow for confirmation, someone I definitely trusted more than Noland.

She nodded, "Yes, it's true."

Shit.

Doing that would leave me with one Dark Crystal and my Shiny Stone, but… but I couldn't freeze like that in the middle of any battle; it meant death.

I started cursing out loud, then sat on the ground, opened the front part of my SolarTitanium Crus, threw the Crystal away, and shoved the Dark Crystal inside.

I doubted it wouldn't fit, given that I had always only used regular Crystals whose maximum weight had to be five hundred grams. Yet the Dark Crystals fit.

I rose again, feeling the tingly sensation of my sudden adaptation to a new limb.

Then I handed Harlow another Dark Crystal.

"Help me up, please."

The arm's socket, for obvious logistic reasons, was placed near the armpit.

She lifted my arm, pluck the Crystal, and shoved the Dark Crystal inside.

When she was done, I started shaking my artificial limbs that felt brand new.

"Will I be alright now?"

Noland nodded, surprised, "The young man is loaded."

"Yeah… those were my last ones," I lied.

"All those with money say so," Rey, Noland's little brother, said.

"Whatever. I'm going to get that dumb-ass back. Harlow," I said, "maybe it's better if you stay here; it's going to be faster that way."

"I'm not Nova, Loke. Go ahead if you wish; I'm coming all the same," she was very convincing.

I would be lying if I said I didn't get just a tad little excited at seeing her so serious.

Yet, I held her gaze, then placed my mouth on her ear and whispered, "If we get out of this place alive, I'm going to fuck you senseless."

Harlow blushed, but just slightly, she whispered back, "I should be the one talking like that. I'm much older than you, you know."

"Yeah," I said with a smirk, "who cares? I don't."

Noland chuckled, and I could see Jamie, that with his level of Perception had likely heard it all, pinch his nose.

"Good, good! If you are ready then, let us escort you!" Said Noland.

I looked at him, unbelieving, until a metaphorical chime rang in my head.

"What did Logan promise you?"

"Wow! You're sharp!" Gaia answered for him with a chuckle.

Noland whistled, "That was a fast guess… well, no need to hide it then… Logan is going to make me a chest armor! Can you believe it? A chest armor made from Logan himself! Ah!" he exclaimed, raising his arms in the sky, "Life is good!"

Rey shook his head in denial.

I couldn't but concur with him; the dark boy was likely the most normal among them.

"Let's just go, will you?" he said to Noland, then preceded us.

"You coming, Drick?" Noland asked.

"Am I getting an armor from this Logan as well?"

"Have you got seventeen Dark Crystals? And a twenty-year-long friendship with him?" He asked back, "Yeah, didn't think so."

"Oh, so it's that, Logan. The one you've enamored with."

"Yeah, think it however you want, you'll see for your eyes when I'm wearing the best armor you've ever seen, Sunguards with their SunTitanium armors could suck on my-"

"Noly…" Gaia interrupted him.

"Alright, alright."

Harlow and I shared a look, but our weirdly growing amusement was carried away by the umpteenth screech of the Technodragon.

It hurt my ears, but it barely made me shiver with the buzzing, and most importantly, there was no freezing whatsoever.

Happy for that, we ventured forward, toward the Metal Trenches.

***

Noland, Rey, Drick, and the tall female Koboldess, whose name I believed was Traka, had jumped in the Metal Trenches as soon as we decided to set out.

"Why aren't we running on top of the walls, Jamie?" Harlow asked as we were dropped down into the Metal Trenches.

"If we did that, we would activate all the nearby Trenches as well. It's like breaking the rules, so even if we go through the Trenches, the creatures would keep hunting us. Not following the Dungeon's rules means death. They would stop but only if we managed to leave for the Freeplains."

Yet the Dungeon didn't care about breaking its own rules when it got to mine and Nova's presence.

“Well…” exclaimed Drick, as the creatures started appearing, “there are quite a few more than I expected. Did your guys all Class up, Noland?”

Noland squinted, answering slowly, “Not that I know of, no. Only Jamie got himself a Class up, but that was two years ago. I’d take their numbers as another of Eclipse’s instabilities.”

Harlow and I shared a look; I shrugged; it was clear that it was because of me.

Yet, she said something I didn’t expect.

"Loke," she called, "I think this situation calls for a Lok-low."

"A what?" Jamie asked, curling his brow.

Surprised by that advice, I took a look at the monsters that had appeared in front of our faces.

There were six Technotriceratopses; they didn't even fit in the Metal Trenches and had appeared in two separate rows.

But that wasn't even remotely all; there were many Technoraptors, Technorhinoses, a new kind of flying tech creature I had never seen called Technowol, and finally, a perfect experiment to test the Lok-low…

Technoankylos, Level 114 (3,589,554/11,400,000)

Durability: 100%

Agility: 114

Constitution: 397

Strength: 211

Focus: 198

Perception: 112

Willpower: 0

Strengths: Destructive roll, Tail

Weaknesses: None

Abilities: Destructive roll

Technoankyloses are relatively slow creatures; however, if threatened, they can close into an ellipsoid shaped and start rolling about; bolstered by their mass and the maneuverability which their heavy tail gives them; these creatures can bring upon devastation until they are stopped.

"Hey, Noland!" I called. "How do those Technoankyloses' Destructive roll work?"

Noland didn't answer, but Rey did.

"I've seen you fight Technogators. They do roughly the same thing, but the ankylos roll about crushing everything near them."

I nodded in appreciation.

What if they were to start their Destructive roll into an enclosed space such as the Metal Trenches?

Yep, I had to try it.

I turned toward Harlow, "If anything goes wrong, we go back, okay?"

She nodded.

"Hey everyone, take a look, for this is a one-time-only occasion," I said, as beams and other incoming attacks were stopped by the Kobold team supporter and Giada's shields.

I pulled my bowstring, squinting my eyes, and manifested a Shadow Piercing arrow, "You are going to witness the Lok-low."

Shadow Piercing Arrow

Shade Capacity: 100%

Shade Density: 97.4

Strengths: Made entirely of Shade

Weaknesses: Weak to Heat, Light, and Flow

This Shadow Piercing Arrow has been produced by Loke Nightfold. Its power is directly related to his knowledge of Piercing Arrows. Handle with care because the product inside is very unstable.

Piercing arrows added up to fifty points of Strength, and I could make one that could add as much as twenty-seven points of Strength. I knew that the better I got at building them, the more it added to the Shadow arrows' Shade Density.

Indeed, Shadow Shot was a spectacular power; I just had to hope my physical Strength was enough to shoot them powerfully enough to penetrate through the Technoankylos' massive Constitution. Although eyes were weak in every creature, including tech ones, the Technoankylos' Constitution was still impressive and would have counted against it.

When I released, and the arrow hit, it wasn't enough. The Technoankylos blinked, and the eyelid was much too tough for my arrow.

I tsked, then drew another.

—Still nothing.

"Damn it…"

"What are you trying to do, kid?" Jamie asked.

I turned toward him, sighing.

"Focus the Technoankylos' eyes, pierce them, blind it, and then we focus the ranged's attacks against it. It will rage, and if, no, when it does, it will free us of most of our troubles," I stated, pointing at the far too many creatures ahead of us.

"This is stupid-crazy…" Jamie answered, "I'm just going to be wasting my arrows."

"Jamie, do it," Noland said as he stopped nearby after flashing back with his Dash. "This kid knows his deal. We shall try it out."

"You've all lost your minds…" Jamie said, shaking his head but aiming his bow.

His Piercing Shot was a true Piercing Shot. Mine couldn't even compare.

Two arrows later, the first ankylos was entirely blinded. Then starting with Harlow's disintegrating beams and Noland's invitation, two of the Kobolds, both rangers, started shooting their ranged Skills at the tech creature.

It was only a few seconds later that the ankylos lost its temper.

It folded like a spheroid, then started rolling.

It was chaos.

The screeching of metal on top of metal was incredible.

As his body rolled on top of the nearby creature's bodies, its tail hit right and left without pause; one hit was enough to bring a raptor to the ground, literally destroying it.

Pieces of Techraptors flew about inside of the meal path and over our heads.

Although it was clear it wasn't as effective against the triceratops, the suddenly decreasing amount of creatures we had to face was a boon. If that wasn't enough, when the first ankylos landed on top of another, it brought forth a chain reaction.

I was not expecting that; none of us were. And damn, it would have been better if it hadn't happened.

"Guys…!" Said the Koboldess, Drick's party tank, "Are you sure that wasn't a mistake? Because I have no idea how to tackle THAT!"

"Wait! Don't run, or you will call for more!" Giada said.

"Those things are going to trample us to death!" Drick shouted. "Traka," he pointed at the tall Koboldess, "stop that!"

"Argh! Buff me to full!" She shouted, launching herself at the one mad Technoankylos rolling toward us.

One of the Kobolds, dressed in a dark grey tunic, looked like a Shaman, raised his arms into the sky; a moment later, a bolt of lightning descended from the heavens, and flowing through him, it jumped over to the Koboldess called Traka.

She seemed to burst with power as she launched herself at the coming monster, then, bringing her heavy shield in front of her, she rammed it on the ankylos, pushing it backward and against another incoming ankylos.

The—now four—rolling ankylos were literally tearing apart every metal creature they found on their path. Still, when two ankylos collided and started stumbling into one another, tearing themselves apart, the tension that had been building up among our parties became elation quickly.

One ankylos fell, then another, and finally, they stopped rolling.

The two remaining ankylos stopped. One of the two was the blind one, and all around them laid destruction; some of the triceratops trying to stand up but failing were killed by Jamie with Death Shot.

A couple of minutes later, the heavy attackers took care of the ankylos, and the road laid wide open for us.

I didn't receive even a point of Soul fractions; my Piercing arrows had likely done nothing at all as far as damage went to the monsters.

"That was… madness," the Kobold named Drick said, turning toward Noland's group.

"Whose idea was that?"

Jamie pointed at me, then rose his hands up, excluding himself from the misdeed.

"That was… that was… brilliant!" Drick said, surprising even me.

I could see Jamie snort and then say, "Yeah, right…"

"We call it the Lok-low," Harlow stated. She was trying to smile as much as possible to her defenses, but I knew her knees were trembling.

"You've got to come to delve with us, kid. I officially invite you to our party!" Drick said, offering me his hand.

"Oh, well, thank you…" I answered, "But I've already got my own party, you see. I've got responsibilities," I answered with a smile.

"See, Drick? He's already promised he would join up with me," Noland said.

"That could work," his brother Rey answered, folding his arms and nodding.

"What!?" Jamie shouted, disappointed.

"Yeah, that's nice; we could leave Jamie at home for a bit," Giada added.

"You too!?" Jamie seemed to want to cry! "Do I have to remind you that I made that possible!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, have your glory Jamie, pfft!" Giada answered, winking at me.

"Alright, we've had our fun, but it's time we hurried; we've likely got three more of these encounters to make before we reach the Inner ring. Let's go!" Noland ordered.

As much as I didn't want to admit it, the delvers' crazy lightheartedness was compelling. It drew out my smiling face. And although I knew these people were likely as crazy as the Sun could make them, as gramps would say, I desired to try and reach the same level of levity with my own team.

***

A couple of encounters later, where people managed to repeat the Lok-low only once given the absence of Technoankylos and creatures that lent themselves to such powerful attacks, we reached the end of our path of the Metal Trenches.

I had no idea about Harlow, but I had barely made a few thousand Soul fractions of contribution.

All of the Soul fractions were shared to me thanks only to Loki, who had been healed by Giada and whose Fading Dash had allowed him to get close and personal with some of the raptors then disappear.

You've earned 7285 + 12595 + 10854 + 41595 + 27579 Soul fractions. Soul fractions for next Red Tamer level: 174,525/400,000

Loki has earned 7285 + 12595 + 10854 + 41595 + 27579 Soul fractions. Soul fractions for next level: 102,229/400,000

Although he had attacked only a few constructs, and given that the fractions had been halved among all of us, the Soul fractions he had gained for himself and that were subsequently divided with my Class were good, all I had to do to take the contribution when Loki fought without my support, was to Track the creatures he fought.

Also, such powerful creatures, which we had never fought, would give us full Soul fractions; it would be long before we would start suffering from diminishing return while fighting such high-leveled beasts.

However, Frenzy Promotion was not improving.

I had yet to figure a way to improve it speedily. If I didn’t feel one of the possible Perks, it would take a lot of time.

Skill points for Frenzy Promotion:

- Frenzy Major Perk: 0/2000

- Frenzy Minor Perk: 37/1000

- Frenzy Passive Perk: 3/500

My analysis was harshly interrupted by the sudden cry of the dragon.

I saw the glorious metal beast soar tall in the sky, and I could gauge the other's reaction to it; they all slowed down to look at its intentions.

"It's about to breathe," somebody said.

"Giada, be ready," Noland said, seriously.

She didn't answer, but it was clear that the dragon's presence was a serious thing even for this group of veterans.

It was when I realized the situation Harlow and I was going to place ourselves into.

We were not real delvers, not yet, at least. We were greenhorns, flashy ideas, and executions or not. We did not have these people's powers.

Ultimate Classes or not, delvers were at the peak of sentients' powers and, most importantly, preparedness.

That Dragon's Attributes were higher than those of the Sand-Wyrm; its level was higher too, although, for some reason, it required a lot fewer Soul fractions than the Titan.

Maybe the Titan's levels required so many because he was, well, a Titan? But it was clear that pitching the two against each other, right now, I would see the metal dragon winning.

"It's gonna breathe!" Shouted one of the Kobolds.

The dragon flew high in the sky, then turned back toward the ground, and started speeding down; it took what was likely its most aerodynamic position as it descended toward the Inner Ring.

When it opened his mouth, an incredible amount of a dark gas-like substance was shot toward the ground, supposedly against Alistar's group's position.

"No! I found myself shouting as the vast pillar of dark gas reached the ground and washed over the fields.

It was in just a few moments then, and the cloud of gas was launched in every direction, shields appeared all around us, coming from both teams, and silence reigned supreme for a second.

The creature that had appeared, given that we had stopped, was reached by the cloud and started utterly melting away.

Metal corroded, reddened, then started dissolving.

The Trenches' Metal started becoming hotter and hotter. I could feel it because of my right boot. Somebody else started jumping up and down to evade the heat, but it was useless; the more time passed, the more we stood in the bubble of shields and away from the cloud of melting gas, the more the walls and the pavement became hotter.

It was unclear to me what kind of reaction the melting gas had and why it didn't seem to damage the shields. Trace wasn't working on the gas, so I couldn't say how it worked, or if it would work on us too, but one thing was certain.

We had to leave or die trying because standing here spelled death all the same.