If it had been a video game, Lapushka should have plenty of glowing weakpoints to shoot at, phases to go through, with some song and dance to organize as a raid boss.

Unfortunately, the Nathir military complex had designed this golem specifically so that it wouldn't have easy weak points.

If anything, the only thing Wade could spot that could be a sign of weakness is that the golem was supposed to have a shield generator. It should have protected the critical parts with it, but either it had broken down over the years or the golem lacked power to run it.

Not that there were any weak points even without the shield. Even without it, the golem was pure armor with no crew vulnerabilities like a tank.

The only 'weak point' that could be damaged had been the rock slabs. But Wade found out these weren't the actual guns - it was ammo. Magic built into the golem would cut off small cube pieces from the slab, compress them, then shoot them out. This slowly wore down the whole slab, like using a cheese grater. Which made the slabs expendable.

In any normal world, dealing damage to those would just annoy Lapushka. But Wade and his bullshit gaming system had an advantage these brave souls never had. Which meant it would deal damage to the golem itself even if those slabs were completely unrelated to Lapushka's main systems.

Golems are rigid creatures with predictable patterns. One such pattern is how they trap elusive targets. We are running on a strict time limit. The first sign is that they cease to patrol the area. Entrypoints will then be blockaded in a wide net. This can be recognized from a distance - they will form a straight line and advance slowly, an artifact of their original purpose: Population control. There is only one blind spot - golems base their anti-riot cordon on previous scouting, overlooking unknown tunnels as their net tightens. As such our first great work here is to prepare the field with as many safehouse tunnels as we can make, so that we might escape their detection. This will allow us to survive for some time, until the golems map these newly made tunnels. The time limit is thus: Destroy the Tier Nine golem before all our safepoints are discovered. Failure will mean we must withdraw and prepare another hunting ground elsewhere. We begin as soon as we have prepared the field. Gods grant us all favor.

The group of rebels arrived, dug safehouses and tunnels all over in preparation, baited the giant golem into this zone and then took advantage of its programming to stay in place.

After that, they harassed it almost daily.

They'd learned from each attempt, mostly in what didn't work. The maintenance access hatch to the mana condensers were located right under the stomach of the golem and that had been the first target. If they could break through and sabotage those, the golem would eventually start running power conservation protocols. After which, all they'd need to do would be to keep waking it over and over until it finally starved to death.

They'd never managed to get under the golem, Lapushka was very defensive about letting anyone tickle its belly, especially since those mana condensers also powered the shield it was supposed to have.

One by one, all their hiding holes were found and mapped faster than the group made progress on fighting the golem. So they set up their last camp near their final safepoint location. The writing just got darker with each day as the group was slowly whittled down in size.

With five of us down, and Yamir NA-12's leg missing, I must prepare for possible failure. With point E now discovered, they have mapped every point except for C.

As of now, I have decided to halt all action against the golem, we have a greater danger to resolve:

Golems do not forget. Their memory is perfect. Years later, others may stumble into our prior points and consider themselves safe from a golem containment net. Before we continue, we must revisit all points to either collapse them, or failing that, leave messages of warning to any who return there.

Given these points are already discovered and patrolled, this mission will be far more dangerous. We will set out at the noon workbell.

There was no more writing after that. The golems must have found point C during that operation and Eri died there, making certain no one else would let their guard down.

"Damn. They were pretty hardcore." Wade said, putting the book down on the table.

"The Nathir bunkers remained a mystery for as long as I've heard of them, with no one able to penetrate the functioning ward barriers." Selena said as Wade told her what they'd all learned. "It never occurred to me to consider the mirror of that, of people trapped inside here unable to escape outwards."

He gave the open pages one last look, then closed it shut, his mind processing the futility of Eri's quest. "Not sure we learned anything useful except 'The giant death robot has no weaknesses, good luck.' Shit, we've got our work cut out for us."

"Least we know for a fact how to get out of this hellhole." Illy shrugged. "Small steps."

"Yeah, great discovery." Wade said, "The only way out is by beating a giant death robot."

The giant loot-filled XP-pinata death robot, you mean (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b

Wade didn't bother reading that one out loud to the group, instead he flipped the phone screen over to Leon and Illy.

"I voting we continue looking for rat." Leon said, passing the phone back. "Is only hope I can think of."

"Agreed with Leon on that." Wade said. "We've got next to no chance without some kind of power-up."

"Let's split the work up then." Illy said, "You go look around for the rat, knife-ears can keep you safe in the meantime. The big oaf and I can abuse identify for anything shiny in the area. Might find something that isn't bolted down we can make use of, or get an idea about."

Made sense to Wade, Selena knew a lot more about the outside world, but had no clue about what the Nathir had. She could walk past an assault rifle and not recognize the significance. Illy and Leon had a cheat-sheet on the other hand.

Convincing the elf to keep an eye on Wade was simple enough. When she started to complain that her duty was to keep Illy safe, all the Scot did was point in Wade's general direction as if that was all the counterargument needed. Somehow that was enough for an upset-but-resigned ear waggle out of her.

Wade decided not to ponder too deeply on that.

"Insane how fast they can run." Wade muttered, as the third rat slipped past their attempt to catch it. "It's like they're cheating the laws of physics."

The few blackrot rats they found scurrying around the bushes and mushrooms growing close to the water streams and dirt, all raced off into the distance faster than any of them could catch. And Wade's limp made it all that much harder. he'd tried a few different tactics out, from trying to surround the rat with Selena, or throwing random golem parts ahead to make the rat run back to them. All attempts had failed so far. Those rats were really good at surviving.

"They are smaller, and empowered fully by blackrot." Selena said, stabbing her spear into the dirt so she could take a break. "If we might find a larger animal to hunt, I would be able to use a mana lance, it would likely not kill in one hit."

Unfortunately, the blackrot rats here were the size of his hand, and the mana lance spell Selena had would be extreme overkill.

"We should have hit the weasel when we had the chance." Wade vented, sitting down on the dirt. "That beast would be too angry to die from a hit like that, and we'd be able to catch him right after."

She didn't answer back, eyes fixed on the dead skeleton they'd fought earlier, her expression looking almost distant.

"Something about the skeleton catch your attention?" Wade asked.

She didn't immediately respond, ears wiggling with different attempts to answer that question and then halting as she reconsidered. "I am merely thinking how it is... unfortunate when potential goes unrealized. Whoever was the soul that died here, they would have had a brighter future if they'd had the chance and access to a teacher instead of having to learn everything all alone." She turned away from the skeleton, adjusting her armor with practiced nonchalance. "At the very least my estate contains passed down volumes I can study alone. I suppose I do have it better."

"Think this guy fought all these golems by himself?"

She shook her head at that. "These golems have likely been defeated in multiple different engagements over time. And given the final resting pose, I believe it was a full group and this one was the unfortunate casualty who's wounds were too grave to heal in time."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Ah. Yeah, that'd make more sense." Wade had somehow gotten it in his head that this one skeleton had beat up every golem out here all at the same time. Selena had better intuition than he did when it came to combat it seemed.

Illy and Leon came out of the house, Illy slapping dust off her pajamas. "Well that was interesting, but unless we want to loot a bunch of paper or some display swords, not much we could find in there. I take it from your completely normal lookin' skin, no luck with the rat catching?"

Wade shook his head, "Unfortunately, I'm not part cat."

"No shite, cats actually sleep."

Wade rolled his eyes, but the group quickly got together again and once more made a final desperate attempt to catch a single rat.

Despite two additional hunting members, it didn't work any better.

Wade watched another blackrot rat disappear down a crevice in a rockside wall with an angry squeak. He was starting to think these things were deliberately taunting them.

Illy let out a frustrated sigh, kicked the wall, and then slumped down. Hands on her knees as she caught her breath. "What was that cartoon, the one with the cat chasing the mouse all the time?"

"Tom and Jerry?"

She snapped her fingers, "That one there. Reckon we're like poor Tom, except Jerry's been roided up on magic meth and havin' a right laugh at our expense the whole time."

Wade snorted. "Yeah, we're missing cheese to use as bait or a shotgun to hunt it with."

"Maybe I might be able to shank one with a good knife throw?" Illy asked, summoning a dagger in her palm and testing the weight out.

"We don't want to kill it, we need it alive." Wade said. It was the Selena mana lance dilemma. They technically had the firepower to kill the thing, just too much of it.

"Would it really though?" She pointed at the crack where the rat scampered off to. "You told me that weasel could take three proper stabs with a blade and still come back fer more. Maybe jabbing one with a dagger or zapping it with Selena's magic wouldn't actually kill the little pests. Or maybe it would, but we know blackrot stays kicking as long as the cells do, not the beast itself. We slice ourselves up, and smear the dead rat on our wounds."

"Very unsanitary." Leon said, closing ranks behind them. "Dead rats as cleaning wipes not recommended."

She smiled and shook her head, "Doubt I'm good enough to actually nail one of these little shites with a knife. Give me a gun and we'd be talking."

Leon scratched the little tuff of beard he had by his chin. "We have granola bars, could crush a few and set something as trap."

"These aren't normal rats, they'd probably rip apart anything we make." Wade said. An idea began forming in his mind. "What if we're overthinking this? The weasel attacked me before, right? When I was alone."

"And what are you suggesting?" Illy asked, eyes narrowing down at him.

"Don't worry about it. I go out alone, act like bait. The weasel shows up to mug me in a dark alleyway, bites me, you guys jump in and scare it off before it does too much damage." Wade shrugged. "Then we all swap zombie bites and sing kumbaya."

Illy crossed her arms. "And where would we find him even? Your friend scampered off into the sewers, could be anywhere."

Wade raised a finger up, and then realized he didn't really have any clue where the bloodthirsty thing ran off to. Could have been this direction, or far off. "Damn. Well, how do we catch a goddamn rat?"

Leon hummed, "Plan trap?"

"Reckon that's the way to go." Illy said.

"Also vote for plan trap." Wade said. "Anyone know how to make a rat trap?"

Somehow, they all ended up silently turning to Leon.

He shrugged back. "May have idea."

The group shuffled back to the warehouses and Leon got to work looking for supplies. He seemed to have some kind of plan, maybe he'd seen or read in his history books different ways rats were caught. Illy was also pretty handy with rope and setting up things, so she stayed to help him out.

Wade and Selena went outside to keep guard, in case anything came looking for them, and because neither of them had any good skills for this part of the mission.

Plenty of time for Wade to ruminate about things, and daydream about how great life would be once he managed to sell his first bar of gold. But he still considered some tactical thoughts.

"Hey Selena, I do have a question. About souls again."

"Speak your will." She said, keeping herself straight, eyes looking for anything out there. She was still miffed about the group trying to get infected with Blackrot, but it wasn't as militant as it had once been.

"Do you know if golems have souls?" Wade asked.

Her ears waggled slightly. "A golem made with bones within could house a soul I think. Although I am not certain that would be a golem or a common necromantic construct at that point. Is there a specific request you wish to know about human-Wade?"

"I have a possible chance to use magic and return something to life, but it requires a soul. I was wondering if the golems here had one?"

Getting a level 122 giant fuck-off golem as his summoned pet would be the best thing ever.

And, of course, Selena ruined his happy fantasy almost immediately. "I sensed nothing usable within the golems to chain up. The only non-living material I know of that could house a soul is bone. However, your strange earth magic may work regardless. It has thus far done things beyond what I knew mana could be used for."

Strange earth magic was a good way to leave it at that until Illy could sit down with the elf and even make the attempt. Big topic to explain a video game system imposed over the world to a local moonwing elf after all. Wade's translation service was of course happy to help. For a small convenience fee.

They continued chatting about magic, until Wade stopped and squinted. His glasses were doing a good job, but the low light out here made things difficult.

"I don't have the greatest eyesight, but do you see that in the distance? Looks like motion."

Selena walked over to where he stood and looked at his direction. Then she turned and bolted into the warehouse. "Out! Golems on approach!"

Illy and Leon were knee deep in some kind of bucket-looking trap, but despite them not knowing elvish or elvish ear body language, they could tell exactly what Selena was calling out for.

A moment later they were outside, project abandoned.

Wade got a better look at the approaching golems and realized something: They were walking in one single line.

Like a net closing in. A golem containment net.

Uh oh. Wade's head crunched the numbers and realized they were fucked. Leon yanked him off his feet the next moment, "Less gawking, more running." He said, turning with Selena and Illy as the gang sprinted back to the tunnels.

The note on the table. The very first thing Eri had written down as a warning. That the golems had discovered this tunnel. Wade now knew why this tidbit of information had been so important to write down even as Eri bled to death.

Running wouldn't work. "They know we're here!" Wade said as he was jostled around on Leon's shoulder.

"What's the yank muttering about?" Illy asked, jogging next to Leon.

"They know about the tunnels around here, all of them! I'm saying we're going to have to fight the golems. Either ten or twenty at a time if we try to break through the line, or we go back and kill Lapushka as fast as possible, then exit out the sewers."

"We don't have Blackrot. Your giant death robot is going to murder us with our level of preparation."

Leon looked back, "Golems moving slow, methodical. Maybe we have thirty minutes at best before they dig into tunnels? Them moving means they also chase animals out of the way too, da?"

They might find the hyper-weasel. And then Wade would need to act as if he was alone and get bit by it or something.

He couldn't be sure that plan would work. He needed more advantages. "Leon, cut through to the headquarters, I need you to grab one of the giant swords!"

"You will have to be running by yourself if I carry that. There is limit to how strong I am. Not enough strength points yet."

"That's fine, a little warm up for my limp will do it good. Probably. I don't know, adrenaline is a hell of a drug I hear."

Leon reached the headquarter wearhouse, putting Wade down before stalking inside, yanking the first good quality Nathir shortsword he could find. The thing was massive, but Leon was still taller. He carried it in one hand, cradled over his shoulder while his other hand carried his hammer. "Okey, I good to go. You have plan for this sword? Trap maybe?"

Wade certainly couldn't throw that giant thing at the golems, and neither could he do that with the golden lootbox. But he did have somewhat of a plan. "Later, still not even sure if I should do this or not. But fuck, easy come, easy go right?"

Leon shrugged, not sure what Wade was talking about, but the American had proved himself capable plenty of times now, so he trusted in whatever scheme Wade had.

They reached the tunnel, then to the trapdoor. Down below they heard no sounds yet, but Wade knew it was deceptive.

They could try to run off further out into the other tunnels, but that was even worse.

"See, the problem is that we have to fight Lapushka. And soon." Wade said, climbing down the ladder after Illy. "Killing it and getting the key really is the only way out of this net. Either that or we die."

"Don't fecking give up on me yank." Illy spat back. "I only need three more coins to buy the boon I got, I ain't dying until I get those. You lot are in an even worse shape, think you need four more each."

She raced through the winding tunnel into the safepoint barracks, the group behind her. Wade's limp was mostly fine, two points into strength meant he could rely on his unhurt leg to really do the hard kicking, while his other leg would try to just hang in there.

And the Scot had a point on the boons. He had a honest to god dodge roll, something that could negate outright physics. Some video games had tiny level one player characters beat God with just dodge rolls and a big stick. And that was just in the confines of the video game.

Or maybe the animation lock itself could be used. Inertia and mass were basically turned off while he was dodge rolling. There was so much more to test out.

But if he didn't buy it at the storefront at the end of this round, it would be gone forever.

He couldn't afford to die here yet.

And that meant using up every advantage they had. Wade stopped midway through the saferoom, then approached the table.

The other three stopped, shared glances but ran back up to him. "What's on your mind yank?"

Selena had told him earlier. The only non-living material I know of that could house a soul is bone.

Wade pointed at the dead skeleton.

Level 37 Undead Nathir Slave - 0%

Eri LE-10.

"We need every advantage we can get right?" Wade said. "Lapushka has to be destroyed. And who else can we bring back? The spiders out there got instantly killed, they're too big of a target."

The level twenty three undead warrior had put out a fight, and clearly proved capable of using spells and magic. And Selena had said it probably wasn't their strongest fighter, just the one that got the most unlucky and couldn't be saved.

So what could a level 37 undead ringleader do?

Likely more than a giant spider could.

"You sure you want to use your only scroll on this guy?" Illy asked, kicking a bit of the bones on the ground.

"No, but I also don't want to show up to Play's domain without the money."

There might be more optimal uses of it in the far future. But Wade recognized a game that was built around snowballing. The more options he had to work with right this moment, the more future issues he could handle, which would directly lead to him unlocking more things faster than other players.

In his hand, the scroll of raise dead appeared.

... then he realized he had no idea how to actually use it. "Uhh, System? I want to use this scroll on that skeleton right here."

Do you wish to consume Scroll of Raise Dead (System Quality) on Level 37 Undead Nathir Slave? Is this your final desire?

It really was watching him at all times. But he also didn't have time to hem and haw, sometimes hesitation was defeat. "Do it."

Power flared through the scroll, and Wade's wish was granted.

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