A small battle at the gate
Feeling the danger approaching, Sorens was startled, but his movements could not keep up with his reaction. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, his feet softened and he slipped to the ground, and by accident he completed a thrilling dodge.
In a flash, Ximu brushed past him and rushed to the side of the stone pillar. Without even looking, he launched several crescent-shaped arc-shaped slashes, densely covering a large area in front of him, forcing the enemy who ambushed them to retreat and defend.
It was this tiny gap that allowed her to quickly grasp the type and number of the enemy.
Although he cast a long-range attack magic, the opponent this time was not a magician, but three kingdom knights holding long swords and wearing simple cloaks!
I clearly saw them walking away before... Did they just come back from the other side?
Ruisha's defense barrier has begun maintenance, and the battlefield cannot be expanded. They must be kept within the range of the porch!
With this in mind, Ximu used magic to strengthen his limbs. When the nearest enemy swung his sword, he directly grabbed the weapon, then rushed straight into the opponent's arms with the sword, freeing up his other hand that was shining with black light, and fiercely raised his palm to strike, smashing the lower half of the opponent's head with one palm!
Taking advantage of her opponent's inability to move but not yet completely collapsed, she grabbed his shoulder and used it as a shield to block the other knight's attack. The moment the longsword pierced his body, a small circular emblem quickly formed on the tip of the sword, firmly fixing it in place. No matter how hard he tried, he could not retract the weapon.
Just as he was about to abandon his sword and use magic, a bright light flashed across his neck.
The silver-haired girl had gotten behind him at some point and chopped off his head with a clean move.
The last enemy stood the farthest from Ximu. Relying on the distance advantage, he did not rush up directly for hand-to-hand combat. Instead, he swung his sword and released one very familiar attack magic after another.
As expected of a magic academy, even the guarding knights can do this...
Thinking of this, Ximu turned around and moved like a snake, looking for flaws while drawing the enemy's attention to himself to prevent him from suddenly attacking Molina and Sorens.
But these two are also very clever——
With a casual glance, he found that Molina had already pulled Sorens to the other side of the stone pillar. The distance was neither too close nor too far, just within the casting range where she could provide timely assistance to Ximu.
Looking at the thumbs up that Molina gave him, Ximu smiled, then took a step forward and suddenly disappeared from where he was!
The suspicion of losing the target caused the enemy's intensive firepower to pause for a moment.
But in the next moment, he suddenly turned around, raised his eyes, raised his sword and stabbed towards the darkness diagonally above!
“clang!”
The sound of metal clashing was so cold that it was terrifying. But just as the two people behind the stone pillar were nervously watching how Xi Mu would change his moves in the air, the knight holding the sword suddenly stopped moving, and then slowly collapsed to the ground and began to turn into ashes.
Before the enemy fell to the ground, he pulled back the dagger that had stabbed into his back. At some point, Xi Mu had circled behind him, put the knife back into its sheath, and walked towards them without looking back.
When the Ximu in the air fell to the ground and disappeared like smoke and dust, Molina, who had seen this move before, finally realized - Oh, so that's it, it was the move of that clone.
The battle was over before the two pairs of accompanying combat puppets could make any move.
As a former small town boy, although it was not the first time that Sorens saw Ximu taking action, the murderous aura of real guns and knives still made him dare not look into Ximu's eyes.
"...Are all adventurers this strong?"
Ruixia hadn't revealed much about his identity to him when she introduced him before, only saying that he and Ximu were adventurers together, so he asked this question.
Molina blinked, and it was impossible for her to take the initiative to expose Ruixia's public statement. She could only whisper comfortingly to him, "Oh, it's okay. Ximu is one of us. The stronger she is, the more at ease she will be. As long as you stick with us, she will definitely not do anything to you. Don't worry."
"Is this door locked?"
There was no greeting or transition. Xi Mu, who had returned, glanced at them, and after confirming that everything was fine, he got straight to the point and looked at the double doors of the workshop.
The length, width and height of the gate are all magnificent. The emblems of hammers and interlaced flames occupy the entire left and right sides of the facade. The intricate carvings have both beauty and power. Even in the soft night, one can feel an inexplicable momentum.
"It looks a bit like the mark of the Craftsmen's Guild."
According to Morina, the logo on the door is very similar to the emblem of the Craftsmen's Guild in the outside world, but the one on the door looks more realistic and simple, while the one circulating today is more geometric and symbolic, and has obviously undergone multiple rounds of modification and simplification under the baptism of time.
But they didn't know how to explain this matter in detail to Sorens, a "local" who was outside the time period, so the topic was brought up by the girls in unison after just a few words.
Sorens didn't seem to care too much about this casually mentioned episode. He touched the rough door and answered the original question: "Under normal circumstances, the workshop would be locked at night. After all, it stores many precious materials shipped from all over the place. If they were lost, it would be very troublesome, but..."
He hesitated and considered for a while, and finally chose the time period of "recently" to continue.
"The academy has been under martial law recently. To prevent any accidents, the craftsmen in the workshop are working overnight to prepare spare weapons and magic props... To facilitate the entry and exit of the craftsmen on shift, I think the gate... should be open."
"Are there any security measures inside the gate?"
Ximu just asked for the sake of it. After all, for a young man like Sorens who just came here to work and study, it was good enough that he had a general understanding of the layout inside. The craftsmen would probably not reveal the more confidential places and arrangements to him casually.
"Um……"
It was obvious that Sorens really wanted to help. He tried hard to recall the layout of the workshop, then shook his head helplessly.
He had only come here to work, so naturally he couldn't run around and look around. Even if he had seen some strange sculptures and hinges, he couldn't imagine that these things could be combined to form some strange and deadly moves besides being decorative.
Ximu touched the door of the workshop with his hand. It felt hard and rough, and he guessed that it was made of some very dense stone.
With this thickness, even if siege vehicles were used to destroy it, it would probably take several rounds to completely break it open... Perhaps in the sudden invasion of the Kingdom of Keden, the damage here would be much less than that of other places.
Do you want to try sneaking in from another place first?
However, during the previous discussion, although Sorens mentioned that the workshop had several lighting points and ventilation holes, the locations were not very good. They were either on the top or on the side of the cliff. Once a complex situation occurred, the tolerance rate would be very small.
Moreover, she was really worried about leaving Morina and Sorens alone at the door.
The communication and positioning tools are all with her. Once something happens to Sorens - he has other ideas or suddenly starts to change - then Morina, who is alone, will be in great danger.
Although Ruixia said that the combat puppets would react instinctively to danger, and she would also take the initiative to perform some operations from the rear, if Ruixia's attention was not here at that time - this was also normal, he could not just stare at them all the time and do nothing else - with the limited combat capabilities of the mechanical puppets, they might not be able to kill the threat directly in the first time like she did.
It’s better to go directly through the main door.
Generally, the mechanisms that can be ambushed at the door are nothing more than arrows or something like that... There is a way to break any trap, and she has long been very skilled at breaking the trap while taking risks.
"Stand farther away, try to stand outside the door."
Ximu turned his wrist, moved his shoulders and neck, then moved his lips and silently chanted a spell to increase his own strength.
There was no other way. There were no strong teammates among them. As the output unit with the highest strength, she had to do this physical work herself to see if she could work a miracle with her strength.
Just in case, she turned around and asked Sorens.
"Can these two doors be opened normally?"
She spent a lot of effort here, only to find out that this thing can only be opened in a certain way.
"Yes, I used to be a volunteer here and saw a craftsman push it open with my own eyes."
Sorens nodded hurriedly.
The craftsman also told him that the workshop door was designed like this on purpose. He said that the original workshop manager deliberately did not add any labor-saving mechanisms or magic in order to motivate the craftsmen.
"If you can't even open a door, how can you call yourself a craftsman? How can you forge a weapon that would even attract the attention of the God of Fire?! If you can't even do this, don't do this job. Go back to the countryside and be a blacksmith!"
So said the legendary strong and powerful old man with a long beard.
"Then what about the craftsmen who made the scrolls?"
Molina was shocked. She couldn't imagine that those craftsmen who were busy calibrating calligraphy and painting at the table could have such extraordinary strength.
"Then just come later," Sorens said with a smile. "The first person to unlock the door each day has to push it open himself, and it'll remain open all day... And the workshop keys are basically only rotated among the heads of a few departments. Ordinary craftsmen don't have the qualifications to get them."
Moreover, the so-called pushing of doors, whether it is two doors or one, only requires pushing the gap between the doors to a degree that can accommodate a person to pass normally - if one does not even have this level of strength, it is unlikely that one will be able to become the head of a department.
The short-haired girl showed an expression that said "that's better than not". When she was thinking about whether to go up and help Xi Mu, she was interrupted by a heavy friction sound.
The moment the door loosened, Ximu gathered all his strength, pushing the heavy door open little by little, while being alert to the unknown darkness in the gap, ready to dodge and move at any time.
Indeed...it's quite heavy...
Taking another deep breath, Ximu exerted force again, pushing the narrow door open inch by inch, until the sound of hammering and banging began to be heard from inside.
Is this... the sound of forging?
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