The Path of Ascension 2: A LitRPG Adventure

35

Liz walked over to stand next to him. “Yeah, but it didn’t work. Not even a little. We think they’re linked to whatever central power source runs the entire ruin. Camilla took out some frustration on them for a good few minutes, and they never even flickered.”

Matt rubbed his face through [Cracked Phantom Armor].

This was distinctly bad news. It meant that using skills had the potential to trap them if both sides of a tunnel were activated.

“Okay, so we all know to be super careful using skills and mana now…right? Don’t want to get trapped in a hallway.”

Malcolm audibly swallowed, but with the lack of reaction from Liz and Camilla, he assumed that they already had put that together.

Malcolm rubbed his face and said, “Sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen. I just reacted when they dropped on me.”

Matt bumped the man with his elbow. “Not a big deal. I would have used a skill in the same situation. No one’s going to blame you for saving your own life. And now we know to watch out for spiders on the ceiling.”

Finding his stick still on his side of the barrier, Matt resumed his duties of trap finding. This time, they also kept a flashlight aimed upward, to catch any more attacks from above.

Their new path took them on a meandering route. It led to fights with another three humanoid golems, but they were careful not to use any skills that would power them up. The precaution made the fights easy enough, but their winding path led them through long stretches of halls. They were journeying through the veritable labyrinth for so long, they eventually needed to stop and sleep.

Things only got more hectic when they continued. While they were finishing up a fight with a golem, a second one appeared from behind them. Matt had to quickly shift his attention to protect his teammates and pushed past the retreating Malcolm to assist Liz with her defense of their rear.

It was incredibly frustrating work with the stipulation of being unable to use mana. Most of their heavy damaging abilities were removed from the fights, which dramatically slowed down the process of killing the golems that opposed them. If the mages were able to use their skills effectively, Aster and Liz would be shredding these golems with ease.

As Matt smashed at the newest golem’s swinging arm, he wondered about what the mages could be doing to assist in these fights. Aster’s ice could hit hard and could get into the gears of the golems. At the very least, it would slow them down and hamper their movements.

At the same time, the golems would absorb some of the mana from the attacks. If the golems were already fully powered, that would be less of a concern, and the decreased mobility will be more of a net gain. If they were willing to empower the golems, the strategy could be somewhat viable, but going from a mid-Tier 5 enemy to a peak Tier 6 one was less than desirable.

Hearing rapid light footsteps approach, Matt dodged right, and Camilla came in to cover him with her mace extended to full length. The extra leverage gave her attacks some real power, and the blow absolutely rocked the golem. With it knocked almost completely off its feet, Matt pressed the attack and drove it into the wall.

Trading the golem’s attention and battering its exposed flanks, they beat the Tier 6 metal into scrap.

Looking at Camilla, Matt noticed a large cut in her exposed leg.

“You, okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just starting to run low on mana.”

His fellow melee fighter dropped to the floor and slowly the large cut in her leg closed. Matt watched the sweat bead on her forehead and grimace on her face grow deeper as she sat.

A wound like that has to hurt pretty badly.

Matt winced internally at the injury. She had a healing skill, sure, but that didn’t mean that her wounds wouldn’t hurt, and that much damage could take its toll on a fighter’s psyche. It was hardly the first injury she had taken thus far. She was low on mana for a reason.

After a moment, she shuddered hard and opened her eyes.

“I’m good now. Thanks.”

He held out a hand and pulled her to her feet.

“Why don’t we find an area to rest for a bit? We’re all low on mana. We could use a break and some time to regenerate.”

Malcolm smirked. “Oh, you need mana? With how long you keep the armor skill active, I assumed you were a mana absorber like the golems. Either that, or you just never ran out of mana.”

Malcolm laughed at the absurdity of the notion, and Matt just laughed along with him. The man probably assumed that the armor skill was a Talent, or at least modified by one. But he would probably never guess that he was actually right on the money with his last quip.

They pressed on and kept walking until they found a corner without an intersection. It provided enough cover for them to decide to rest there for a while.

The constant dangers of the darkness and ambushes were wearing on them, but with Matt having checked the surroundings, they were able to decompress for a bit.

While they sat in the corner, Liz asked, after taking a swig of her canteen, “Where are the rooms or anything else? Why have large hallways built with nothing in them? As far as I can tell, they don’t serve a purpose at all.”

Camilla threw out a guess, “Maybe they’re for trapping intruders in a maze or something?”

Matt didn’t think that was likely, but he didn’t have any other answer. His mind and AI had both been working overtime to try and answer that exact question, but he hadn’t made any progress.

They used the corner to stand watch and spent a fitful night trying to get some sleep. When his watch was over, Matt was only able to get a few hours of broken sleep himself. He couldn’t truly fall asleep, as every noise that echoed through the halls caused him to jolt up and ready his weapons.