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We were almost out of the desert, just maybe about an hour or so until we would finally get grass again beneath our feet.

Because Vincent wasn‘t with us, Nia decided that she wanted to ride on the same spider as mine, I was fine with it, except for when she tries to hack my shield and change its shape. She managed to do it when I was staring into the distance and not thinking about the noise that came from behind my back. Then when I knew there was something off, I glanced down towards my shield just to see its shape was now a cupcake. She even changed the energy color to pink. How she even managed to make it into a cupcake with fine detail baffled me, she really must have some sort of talent for art.

Later on, when I made Nia stay with Reve‘s spider, I glanced at her to see her using the 3D printer to create a grenade behind him. She used a zettra stone and then some sand with it. I honestly thought it wouldn‘t be possible to create a grenade with sand, but after a while, the artifact printer was done, and there was a grenade, but I didn‘t know what type it was, there is no way it could be that powerful with just a zettra stone and some sand?

While I was fixing my shield, Letya came up to me with her spider and Ivona behind her.

„I‘m still not so sure it was a good idea to leave Vincent behind.“

„And why do you think that?“ I asked.

„I mean, isn‘t he your friend? And what he did back in Tyrida, there must have been a reason for the death of the noble. I don‘t believe he would just do it for money, there must have been something else on his mind.“

Oh, there was, the reward was the information to go back where we came from. Should I say it? I still don‘t think it‘s a good idea right now. I‘m still going to keep it a secret.

„Of course, he is my friend, but for all the actions he has taken lately, I can‘t really trust him anymore.“

„Did he do something else besides the assassination?“

„Greed, betrayal, lies, a lot of things. He is just a bad person in general. I still don‘t know why I tried to make friends with him.“

I am greedy sometimes, but not as greedy as Vincent. He would do anything if it is worth his time. Like when he left me injured and took all the artifacts with him. Maybe that is just what he wants. Money. He likely didn‘t even think of me as a friend.

„Grasslands is up ahead, we will be hopping off the spiders soon.“

I finally turned my shield back into a triangular shape, it didn‘t look like the original, but if it is close, then I am fine with it. Maybe I should ask Nia to make it look cool, but she might just turn it into a flower or something.

We took our bags from the spiders, and then they went on their way back to Midhaven.

The spiders were quite intelligent, they know their way back to their home without a person guiding them. They are really loyal to humans and lizards when they are fed and could live peacefully without dangers in the city.

The spiders live naturally in the desert, if they end up on grassland to long, they might get too agitated and could actually die. I don‘t really know why, but apparently they just don‘t like grass, they even avoid it in Midhaven.

We didn‘t take any time to start walking towards Mount Vallow, we wanted to get there as soon as possible before Vincent could catch up with us.

I faced my shield upwards and pulled out the holographic map, we were getting closer to the marker on the mountain.

It was starting to get colder as we moved more north. Beneath the mountain, the grass was packed with snow. I could feel the cold wind going around my head, giving me small shivers.

Thankfully, the weather as been nice to us, except for the amount of snow on the ground.

We were at the foot of the mountain, the skies were cloudy, and Tessera was behind them. It must have snowed really heavily earlier because we were in the snow that measured up between my feet and my ankle. Nia decided that Reve was a horse for the day and was sitting on his shoulders.

„The entrance should just be up ahead, I hope it isn‘t some hatch beneath the snow.“

If Tessera wasn‘t hiding behind the clouds, then the snow might have melted before we have gotten here.

We glanced around the snow-covered landscape, no trees or bushes were in sight, and neither the entrance.

„We are basically on top of the marker, I think we need to start digging through the snow if we want to find it.“

„Great. Nia, get off of me, and help us.“

„But my feet would get cold and wet,“ she argued.

„I going to start to make a snow angel right now, but it would look weird because the angel would look like it has a second torso on top.“

„Ugh, fine!“

Nia hopped down and touched the cold snow. I could see her shiver while trying to heat up her hands with her breath and trying to get the snow out of her shoe.

„Oh! I know!“ She suddenly said and took out some sort of gadget.

„What‘s that?“

„It‘s something I have been holding on for a while, I have had no use for it, until now!“

She gave the gadget her energy from her gauntlets and then threw it to the ground after activating it.

Suddenly a burst of heat surrounded the thing, melting the snow fairly quickly.

„Well that‘s handy,“ I said.

Nia looked proud and grinned. I felt like she was waiting for me to give her some praise.

„Good job, I guess.“

„You guess?“

„Well, the radius of that is quite small, and it looks like it would melt your hand when you would try to hold it.“

She gave an annoyed look.

„Hmph! Maybe it would melt your hand, but my gauntlets can resist its heat!“

Nia walked towards the gadget that I decided to call a snow-melter and picked it up without hesitating.

„See? I‘m quite. . AH!“

She quickly dropped it and pulled out her gauntlet and fell down on the snow. I felt like I could hear her hand and gauntlet sizzle.

„Well, now we know that you have actual hands with fingers and thumbs.“

„. . . ?“

She has always worn her gauntlets, I have never once seen her take them off, not even when she is about to eat food without cutlery.

I noticed that the radius of the snow-melter was getting larger, and just as the edges were melting, I saw a bit of something else than frozen dirt on the ground.

„There it is!“ I said and pointed.

We started digging through the snow. Then we finally uncovered a hatch that I believed was the entrance to the vault.

„Good job, Nia!“ Reve said and patted her head, Nia seemed to like it. Was she some sort of dog?

„Before we go in, do we have everything that we need down there?“ Ivona asked.

„We have enough zettra stones and a handful of rations. I think we are fine, except that we don‘t know what is inside,“ Letya said.

„We just need to proceed carefully, then we can easily go through it.“

I went and started to pull up the hatch, but it was really heavy and it didn‘t even budge.

„Um, a little help, please?“

„Come on, Ethan, don‘t you have the strength of a man?“

I ignored Reve and started pulling once everyone was ready.

The hatch opened with a loud thud as we let it go, we all gave out air when we dropped it. It revealed a lit stairway leading down. A long way down.

„Oh boy, is this going to be one of those vaults with incredibly long tunnels?“

„Ughhh, Mr.Horse, can I get a ride?“

„No, you‘re walking this time,“ Reve denied the-bad-nickname-maker.

----------

The smooth stone walls were lit with torches, and we finally stumbled across a doorway after walking for an hour in a tunnel. Screw these people who dug the tunnels, seriously.

„Our first room of the vault, let‘s get our artifacts ready.“

We all pulled out our artifacts and normal weapons in hands. Reve with his war-ax, Ivona with her crossbow, Letya with her normal sword, Nia with her grenades and strange gadgets, and then I with the shield and a sword.

I opened the door and peeked inside, it was completely dark, I couldn‘t see far inside.

Slowly going inside the room with everyone behind me, the floor suddenly lit up with orange colors. Then the walls shone, as well the ceiling.

Around us stood humanoid statues with weapons in arms, they looked like knights. Even though they didn‘t move, they were scaring the hell out of me. We didn‘t see any insects or monsters.

„Yeah, nope, I am not going to go near any one of those things,“ Nia said and slowly backed off.

„They are just statues, let‘s go to the other side and check out that door,“ Ivona pointed out.

„Even though they are just rocks, I still think they would move.“

I walked up to one of them, and once I got a more close up view of them, something suddenly felt off. The entire room wasn‘t made out of stone, it looked more like smooth metal, and the lights around the room were more technological than just torches. And the statues themselves were also made out of some metal materials. And then I noticed on the back of their necks were wires that led to their body and their heads.

A warning signal from my brain went off, these things seem to be robots, but they were incredibly still.

I glanced back at the others, they might not know what robots are, but in this world of artifacts that are way to high level of tech, it might actually be common.

I noticed Letya, with her sheathed sword, was about to touch one of them.

„Wait! Don‘t touch them!“ I yelled, but it was too late.

Before even Letya could react to my words, the statue moved with speed, swinging its sword right at her.

Letya didn‘t have her sword out, so she used her gauntlets to block the attack and quickly moved away from it.

„See?! I told you!“ Nia yelled and readied a grenade in her hand.

The statues. . . No, the robots started to move, holding their weapons high. I could hear their gears turning, and I noticed something glowing on their backs. It might be their power source, it didn‘t glow when they weren‘t doing anything.

I‘m guessing this vault doesn‘t have any creatures inside, except for these automatons. Their weapons where only swords, and axes with long handles. They didn‘t seem to have any range capabilities, that would work for Ivona‘s favor.

Ivona immediately started firing a barrage of arrows, managing to pierce a few of them, but they still kept going with holes in their heads.

„Try to fire at the glowing part on their backs! I think that is their heart!“ I called to Ivona.

She gave a nod and an arrow flew through the chest of one of them and the arrow pierced through the other side with a stone that fell out of the robot. Then the robot fell with no signs of movement.

The stone that fell out of the robot was a zettra stone, so that is what powers them.

Letya and I swung our swords at the robots and we were actually successful at damaging their parts. Their metal plates weren‘t strong enough to stop our swords. Thank god, I didn‘t want to run around just blocking their attacks with my shield and nothing else.

Reve was having an easy time against them, laughing as he swung his war-ax, breaking them one by one. Some of the robots lost their legs, but still lived and started to crawl to us. It was really creepy. It was something you don‘t want to encounter alone in a dark abandoned space station.

Nia threw a few of her grenades, the shrapnel piercing through many of the robots. Thankfully she threw them a good distance from us.

I noticed as I was destroying them one by one that they just kept on coming. They were really weak, and for the loss of their weakness, they were many. I saw them coming through hidden doorways along the walls. It didn‘t seem to end.

Ivona and Reve started to fire a few programs at them, the pile of mechanical bodies was starting to rise quite a bit.

The fight was going way too long, there must be something around here that stops them from coming at us. Maybe this is some puzzle or a trial, we might need to find something in this big room.

I glanced around the room, but I didn‘t know what I was supposed to find, so nothing obvious was showing to me. I did see Nia starting to look down on one of the robot corpses, but I didn‘t know what she would find.

I need to think clearly, there must be something, anything! Or do we really need to keep on taking them down until no more came from the walls? Well, there must be a limit to how many of them are inside, or maybe there is some sort of automatic robot assembly behind the hidden doorways.

„I got it!“

I turned around to see that, Nia, had an idea.

„Whatever you found out, do it quickly!“

It appears she is going to save us from this. I hope she is right about whatever she is thinking. I am starting to feel tired after blocking so many attacks and making them fly with the Wind Protection program.