"It really is condensed water. It has been running for such a long time without any damage. This device should be engraved with magic patterns or giant runes, right?"

Carl talked to himself and knocked on the wall with his knuckles.

The "clang clang" sound sounded like some kind of metal, but Carl looked at it and it seemed more like ceramic.

Soon, Hope and Ying also crawled out of the tunnel. Seeing the traces of human activities around them, they were both delighted at the same time.

Because this means that everyone is one step closer to finding the giant's treasure, and it seems that they don't have to fight with the dragon beast outside.

"This should be the drainage outlet of a facility in the Giant Ruins. I didn't expect this key to be so smart that it can lead us here."

As he was boasting, Hope took out the key from his dimensional bag.

The patterns on the adamantine key began to glow with a frequency like breathing.

Hope was stunned, not sure whether this change was good or bad.

Carl, who was standing by, reached out and took the key, and found that its light frequency was no longer directional.

"So, the reason why it showed the direction before was probably simply because there was a corresponding giant ruins facility nearby? Some special wave was received by its pattern, and it actually has no guidance function itself?"

After thinking for a moment, Carl's disillusionment with the magic of the key suddenly disappeared.

He originally thought that this key had some intelligence, but who would have thought that it was just a mistake!

"Forget it, I'm overthinking it, but since I've already entered the Giant Ruins, does that mean that I really have a connection with this place?"

Thinking of this, Carl used his special ability to summon the power armor back onto his body.

This was the signal that had been discussed with Bain and the others before.

Sure enough, not long after, voices were heard in the tunnel.

Thorin's voice sounded a little painful. Carl guessed that it was because his short and strong body was not well suited to the tunnel.

But he finally got in successfully because Carl took off his power armor after he was blocked, climbed down and cast a shrinking spell on him.

"I didn't expect that we actually got in. Which way should we go next?"

Looking around the spherical space, Scorpion tried to find a place that looked like an exit.

However, apart from a pipe diagonally above, all that was left was the tunnel they came from.

"Put on the Spider Shoes and let's go up from that side!"

Pointing at the only pipe that might be the entrance, Carl activated the flying spell and flew towards the target.

The rest of the people put on the spider shoes that Carl had prepared in advance.

This is the benefit of having an artificer as a teammate. Normally, a wizard who is able to come and hang out with the adventure group does not have that many spell slots to help his teammates deal with this situation.

The pipe that entered the spherical space from the upper side looked more "crystal clear" than the tunnel that he had crawled in through before. Carl even thought it was some special kind of glass.

Following the pipe all the way up, Carl soon saw what was behind the pipe.

It was a huge spiral duct filled with a blue semi-liquid, semi-gas substance.

There was a slight breeze in this space, but it was generally cool.

The moisture in the air condensed on the spiral duct, then flowed down the duct to the ground, and then flowed down along the pipe that Carl flew up from.

This looks like an enlarged version of a simple air conditioner.

After waiting here for a while, Hope and the others followed one after another.

After explaining the situation to everyone, Carl followed the direction of the air flow and found the outlet.

At the air outlet, a huge four-blade fan is turning slowly.

Such huge objects often give medium-sized intelligent creatures a sense of grandeur.

Even though he often transforms into a giant three or four meters tall, Hope still couldn't help but exclaim "Wow~".

Because the fan blades rotated so slowly, even Thorin, who had the lowest agility, could pass through safely.

Outside this air outlet is a room decorated in a giant style.

The decoration style here is almost the same as the giant ruins that Carl and others had seen before, but the biggest difference is that it is exceptionally well preserved.

The room, which had not been visited by any adventurer except Carl and others, surprisingly looked clean.

There was a pile of things against the wall of the room whose specific appearance could no longer be identified, but based on the furnishings here, Carl just thought it was a bed.

For some reason, Carl remembered the bedroom of the two fire giants in the giant mine cart.

Just as Carl and others were looking at the room, suddenly, there was a sound of metal armor rubbing outside the door.

Everyone is familiar with this sound because Carl's power armor also makes similar sounds when performing certain actions.

Bane, who had the fastest reaction, took out his revolver first, while Carl closed his eyes, let the psychic energy pass through his body, and tried to conduct reconnaissance.

Only black, white and gray images emerged from Carl's mind, and the scene outside the door gradually became clearer under his psychic exploration.

“Crack, crack!”

In the huge corridor, a figure in armor was walking mechanically on the stone floor.

It looks like it has been programmed with some kind of set program, and even after countless years, it is still executing its program faithfully.

Although he was puzzled as to why the giants made such a thing, Carl was not a stubborn person. Since it existed, there must be a reason for it.

But just as Carl was about to withdraw his psychic power and lift the alarm, his subconscious sensed something was wrong.

'Wait, wouldn't living armor normally just stand still? Why is it moving?'

The thought flashed through his mind, and Carl also sensed some danger.

"Get out of the gate!"

After shouting out these words in a hurry, Carl rolled to the side.

The man in armor outside the door suddenly raised the sword in his hand and stabbed towards the door.

This is not an animated armor, but a terrifying armor that is a little more advanced than an animated armor.

Its intelligence is higher than that of animated armor, and it can understand the orders given by the maker to a certain extent and execute them more flexibly.

Obviously, the other party noticed the invasion of Carl and others and pretended not to know, just for the attack just now.

But this is probably the extent of the construct's intelligence.

Bane, who dodged in time at Carl's reminder, had stood up again. He quickly replaced the ammunition, then raised his hands and fired bullets out of the door.

A series of gunshots shook the ceiling of the room so much that dust fell off, but the terrifying armor outside the house was not seriously damaged. Instead, it split the wooden door and drilled in.

If there was a crying woman next to him at this moment, and the weapon in the horror armor's hand was replaced with a fire axe, Carl felt that he might even be aroused to feel some fear.

But now this is obviously impossible.

"The magic defense of the Horror Armor is very strong, and it is immune to three kinds of spells. It looks like it is highly resistant to fire damage. Maybe it is immune to fireball or something like that."

In modern times, similar constructs are often set by their creators to be immune to the following three spells: fireball, scorching metal, and lightning bolt.

This phenomenon has been passed down like some kind of established rule. Carl guessed that it was because these three spells were more restrained against similar constructs.

The construct in front of him was an antique that was who knows how many years old, but Carl still didn't intend to use his limited spell slots to try whether the ancients had a similar consensus.

Don’t you have high magic resistance? Then let’s use physical damage! “Hope!”

Yelling at his girlfriend, Carl rushed towards the terrifying armor.

The tacit understanding developed from living together for a long time made Hope understand Carl's thoughts instantly. He reached out and pulled out a huge mechanical axe from the dimensional bag, and Hope threw it forward.

White mist spurted out from the limbs of Carl's power armor. Carl used his sprinting speed to kick the chest of the large terrifying armor, and then used the recoil to do a backflip.

The mechanical giant axe drew an arc in the air and was then caught in Carl's arms.

The chopping axe is a weapon with extremely strong offensive power.

In his previous life, Carl died many times because of greed when playing Monster Hunter.

As Carl became more and more proficient in the use of giant weapons, he was no longer as "life-threatening" as before, so he created this weapon with the advice of his father, which was used for nothing but offense.

The switching between axe form and sword form is very smooth and not as easily interrupted as the shield axe.

When the terrifying armor chased after him, Carl grasped the axe handle and swung the cutting axe, which was taller than himself.

The heavy weight, combined with the strength, produced considerable destructive power. The terrifying armor just moved forward and hit Carl's axe.

The magic patterns on the mechanical parts lit up with the impact, and the kinetic energy was converted into magic power, which was accumulated in the device on the handle of the cutting axe.

With one strike, Carl succeeded and activated the secret Arcane Knight characteristic of Arkanix.

The magic power of the magic net accumulated in his body for a short time, and then was channeled into the cutting axe in his hand.

Carl turned around and swung the axe again, and the cutting axe began to transform with the injection of magic power and the swinging.

With the sound of metal friction, the cutting axe changed from axe form to sword form.

The magic power activated many magic pattern effects of the weapon, and the entire mechanical sword was becoming sharper and stronger.

This effect was added after Carl seized the Sharp Sword, and it can be regarded as a small upgrade to this weapon.

This blow immediately created a huge gash on the chest of the terrifying armor.

But because it was Carl's first time trying out the effect of the chopping axe, he used a little too much strength.

The mutilation of the body aroused the ferocity of the terrifying armor, and it immediately launched an attack with a long sword.

At this time, Carl's old strength had been exhausted and his new strength had not yet been generated.

Just at this moment, reinforcements from companions arrived!

"Stay away from him!"

With a roar, Hope turned into a black bear and pounced on the man in terrifying armor.

The huge weight knocked the armor to the ground, and the sword in his hand was almost knocked away.

Bane aimed at the helmet and fired a burst of shots, while Shadow and Scorpion released psychic blades and waved them around the armor, trying to destroy some of the runes on it.

Even Thorin held one of the armor's legs and pressed it to the ground.

(End of this chapter)