This armory was a testament to the Rockmen's unique combat sTyles. He could see rows of hammers with various sizes, maces in strange forms, and round shields so thick that they could probably deflect cannon fire.
There were also strange, tubular devices that looked like hand cannons and mechanical crossbows with blunt-tipped bolts.
All of them were clamped into wall-mounts. Layered with transparent crystal-like materials. The clamps and crystal covering used a kind of ancient mechanism. One that seemed to be tied to the same central power grid as the golem.
He found the forge next. It was a massive industrial hall. Cold furnaces the size of houses sat in a row. Great hammers hung from the ceiling on heavy chains. The air here smelled of old grease and cold iron.
He saw a pile of raw ore and metal ingots in a corner... star iron, mystic copper, crimson-stained gold, and moonlight silver. All were precious and rare. This was a great treasure in raw materials. But they were all locked behind the 'inactive' crystal barrier.
Jack wasn't discouraged. He was currently a scout. He was here to find the layout of the place.
He floated back toward a secondary hall and entered a completely different type of room. It might be the version of 'farm' for the ancient rockmen.
It was a mushroom chamber. Unlike the rest of the cold and dead metallic ruin, this room was... alive.
Giant, bioluminescent mushrooms grew from the floor and walls. Fed by an underground spring that trickled through the rock. They glowed with a soft color. Neon blue and earthy green.
The air was humid here. Smelling of damp earth and spores.
Jack moved to the next chamber. It was a bedroom. Kind of... There was a rectangular stone slab in the middle that could be compared to a bed.
Near that stone slab, on a stone pedestal that looked like a table, Jack saw a collection of small objects.
He drifted closer. On the pedestal lay a tray containing thirty rings. They were simple bands of a dull, grey alloy. Each was set with a small, unpolished amber stone. Jack observed each of them...
[Name: Rockmen Authority Ring]
[Description: A recognition token for the Guardian Golem and other security systems within the ruin. Grants 'Civilian Grade' authority, allowing safe passage and access to primary interfaces.]
"The keys!" Jack whispered joyfully.
He looked at the rings. This was the solution to the golem problem. If his crew wore these, they could walk right past the Ancient Guardian Rockleo while it was busy tearing the others apart.
And... there were thirty of them. Thirty rings. More than enough for his crew members. And he could probably share some to the more 'civilized' adventurers.
Jack didn't have pockets in his specter form. Not physical ones. But he had telekinesis. He focused his will. The rings rattled on the tray. He lifted all of them.
He only needed sixteen for his crew members. And that was counting Sparkle, the lightning kirin cub. The other fourteen... he could decide how to use them later.
He carried the rings through the air. Suspending them in a swirling orbit around his hand. He needed to get them back to his team. But he couldn't phase back through the wall with them.
Jack immediately cast a couple of cantrips... [Water Splash] and [Glowing Stone]. The first one was to create a puddle of water on the ground. The second one stuck to the ceiling. Creating temporary light in the completely dark room. Much brighter than the glow that came out of Rune's wisp form.
Now, he had a perfectly usable reflective surface.
He activated his [Mythical Mirror Realm] ability. The tiny pool of water didn't just reflect the room now. It had become a gateway into the mirror world. In this case, to his private dimension, the Mirror Mansion. A sprawling, otherworld estate where he could store his most precious finds.
The surface of the pool shimmered. Jack reached out with his telekinesis and pushed the sixteen rings through the surface of the water. They didn't sink. They vanished. Appearing instantly in the vault inside his Mirror Mansion.
With the rings secured, Jack felt a wave of satisfaction. The mission was already a success. And it hadn't even taken him an hour yet.
He spent the next hour mapping the rest of the accessible areas. He found ventilation shafts that reached the surface. Narrow, vertical chimneys that the Rockmen used to circulate air.
They were too small for a human, but for a specter like him, they were an alternate exit.
He also found the 'heart' of the ruin's mechanical system. It was a complex series of mirrors and lenses located in a vertical shaft directly above the gate.
Jack studied the mechanical alignment. He realized why the ruins wouldn't just open when the sun hit the gate. The light had to be focused perfectly.
If the intensity of the light or the mirrors were slightly off the gate would never open. The explorers outside would be banging on the door for a century.
And, the mirrors were indeed a little bit off. It was quite understandable as it hadn't been used for centuries. The place might also experience slight tectonic shifts within that time.
He could fix it easily. He reached into the mechanism with the telekinetic power of his [Mysterious Anomaly] power. He nudged a heavy brass lens a few millimeters to the left, and polished the dusty mirror surface with a flick of his spectral energy.
"There!" He murmured. "Now, it could be activated easily with enough concentrated sunlight, without a need to wait for high noon sunlight intensity."
Jack turned and began the trek back. He phased through the star-iron gate out. Feeling the familiar, cold resistance.
Outside, the night was still deep. The wind was howling even louder now. A lonely sound that echoed through the canyons of Barrentree Island. Jack glided back toward his camp.
Once he reached the periphery of the camp, he shed his spectral form. The ethereal chill of his ghostly incarnation folded back into the dense, warm weight of his human form. His boots hit the gravel with a crunch that felt too loud in the oppressive silence.
Something was wrong. The camp wasn't quiet in the way a sleeping camp should be. There was a frantic, jagged energy vibrating through the air.
As Jack stepped into the light of the campfire, he saw Leon Drake and Baroness Artheim. Leon was kneeling. His fingers tracing the dirt. The Baroness was frantically flipping her grimoire. The others were nearby with serious expression.
"Captain!" Leon said in tight voice. He stood up. Shaking his head. "They're gone. Reina and the girl, Aella."
Jack frowned. His eyes immediately swept the area. The [Eyes of Judgement] flickered behind his retinas. Scanning for residual signatures. He felt a cold, sharp spike of irritation. He had been gone for just a couple of hours. And some troubles had occurred already.
"How long?" Jack asked. His voice was flat. Devoid of the rage that was beginning to simmer beneath his skin.
"Ten minutes, maybe less." the Baroness replied. Her face was pale. "We were checking the perimeter. There was a sudden mist. Not Reina's fog. This was dark, smelling of old graves. By the time it cleared, they were gone. No sounds of a struggle. Just silence."
Jack looked at Rune.
The small fairy guide began to glow. She didn't emit any sound. She simply vibrated with a pulsating, red and blue light. She had caught the scent and moved to its direction.
"Stay here!" Jack commanded. He didn't wait for a response. He turned and sprinted into the darkness. His human body moved with the unnatural grace of a predator.
He didn't need to think much to understand what had happened. Dark mist, smelling like old graves. It must have been Carana Calvadier, the Eldritch Witch he had identified earlier. The member of the Undeath Sect.
That damned witch was targeting his crew members. Likely it was Little Aella. The child would be appetizing for the hag who was hungry for youthful energy. But she definitely bit more than she could chew. Aella and Reina weren't ones to be defeated easily.
Rune zipped ahead. A streak of blinking neon in the gloom. They traveled about a kilometer away from the camp. Heading toward a cluster of jagged basalt stone pillars.
In the center of the pillars, the air shimmered. It looked like a ripple in a heatwave. But the air here was freezing.
Jack immediately realized what it was. It was an artificial pocket dimension. The [Eldritch Battle Space]. One of the infamous abilities of Eldritch Witches and Warlocks.
Jack stopped in front of the distortion. To a normal person, this was an invisible and impenetrable wall. To Jack, it was a lock waiting to be broken.
"Move back, Rune!" Jack muttered.
He didn't use a key or a spell. He had no ability to unlock the space. But, he didn't need one. He gathered the sheer, raw power of his essence and physique.
He activated his [Incarnation Shift]. Transforming into his rakshasa form.
His body bulked up. His muscles were coiling and expanding rapidly. His skin darkened. Thickening into a thick, reddish black hide. His hair thickened and lengthened, turning into a dark mane. Fiery armor covered his body.
Within just a second, he was no longer human. He was a Black Buto. A hulking rakshasa with fiendish strength and incredible resilience.
Facing the [Eldritch Battle Space], he simply charged forward with full strength. Crashing into the sealed space. Producing a loud explosive sound.
The sound was like a mountain cracking in half. The [Eldritch Battle Space] resisted. It was designed to withstand tremendous pressure. But Jack was hitting it with the full force of his arch-fiend incarnation.
The spatial reality around the crash shattered like a glass pane. Creating a hole in the spatial barrier.
The backlash was violent. A wave of jagged spatial shards tore through Jack. His flaming armor was shredded in an instant. His skin was flayed. Deep gashes opened across his face, chest, and arms. A shard of spatial energy pierced his shoulder. Protruding from his back. Blood sprayed against the basalt rocks.
Jack didn't flinch. He simply grabbed the shard and pulled it out of his shoulder. His [Hyper Regeneration] was already activated.
The wounds hissed. Steam rose from his hide as the muscle fibers re-knitted themselves with the speed of a closing zipper. The bone in his shoulder snapped back into place.
His armor also regenerated quickly.
He stepped in through the breach. Spatial pressure from the broken barrier hindered him. But the [Pressure Immunity] of his [Mythical Adaptation] kicked in. Hardening his body against the remaining spatial chaos.
Inside, the world changed. The sky was full of gloomy grey clouds. And the ground was a muddy expanse of gray ash.
A hundred yards away, an intense battle was in full swing.
It was a chaotic, high-speed dance of death. Reina and Aella against Carana Calvadier, the Eldritch Witch.
Jack remained still. His eyes were tracking the movements. He didn't intervene. Not yet. He wanted to see how his two crew members handled it...
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