Hyperdimensional Player

Chapter 194 Ancient Ruins
Rumble!
The ground began to tremble, and countless pebbles fell. The group had been digging for more than half a month and had already dug thousands of meters underground. At this moment, the walls on both sides cracked, as if they had triggered some mechanism, and extremely heavy footsteps came from the darkness.

—Dwarven Defender (Ancient Construct) (Temple Guardian) (3-Star Silver Gray)!
—Dwarven Forge Guardian (Ancient Construct) (Temple Guardian) (3-Star Silver Gray)!
—Moradin's Steel Guardian (Ancient Construct) (Temple Guardian) (Four-Star Silver Gray)!
Three constructs, each three or four meters tall, appeared. Their surfaces were even covered in bronze rust. The construct at the front wielded a heavy warhammer and carried a thick dwarven tower shield. In an instant, a tremendous force struck, sending rocks flying everywhere and whistling winds crashing down on Tasia in front of it.

Faced with the sudden attack of the enemy, Tasia retreated rapidly. With the help of the mechanical arm, she moved like Spider-Man, scaling walls and rooftops. With a tense yet excited expression, she exclaimed, "We're rich!"

"Below are ancient ruins from the mythological era."

"Maybe we can dig up an ancient city of the dwarves."

boom.

A tremendous force smashed the excavating shield machine in front into a pile of scrap metal. The three activated ancient dwarven constructs appeared sluggish, but their combat power was astonishing. With a rumbling sound, the dwarven runes from the mythical era lit up on their warhammers. They were a very unique type of rune inscription that was close to runes.

"Watch out for lava!"

Just then, a gasp came from the side.

A scorching heat surged from the ground, and a continuous stream of magma erupted from the triggered mechanism. A man who couldn't escape in time was instantly engulfed by the magma and vanished without a trace.

"Something's not right!..."

Duncan had already arrived. They were working in two shifts, taking turns digging, so the machines never stopped even when the people rested. If a machine broke down, Duncan would apply holy oil to soothe its spirit. This method of maintaining the machine was a bit outrageous, but it was indeed effective.

At the rear of the group, Bert, dressed as a cultist, took out a section of mistletoe walking stick and said in a deep voice, "We may have dug up something incredible."

A muffled gunshot rang out.

Tasia's figure moved more than ten meters with the help of the mechanical arm, landing on a rock. She roared at the people around her, "Gun! Give me the biggest one!"

In the corner, a burly mercenary threw a modified heavy machine gun over.

Da da da!
A storm of metal struck the dwarven constructs before them, leaving their surfaces pockmarked. However, the bullets failed to penetrate their thick armor. As the three constructs shifted their formation, the defender wielding the dwarven tower shield moved to the front of the group.

The runes on their surfaces glowed faintly, seemingly activating different combat modes.

On the projected page.

A row of special prompts appeared.

—"The Dwarven Defender has activated the combat feat 'Defense and Offense'."

— "The Dwarven Forge Guardian has activated the combat feat 'Berserk Attack'."

—"Moradin's Iron Guardian has activated the Combat Fetish 'Striking Down'!"

Huh?
Why are there combat prompts?
Duncan glanced at the notification box and saw that the 'Mechanical Soul' mark was glowing. This was all from the Mechanical Soul. It seemed that the Mechanical Soul had a special perception of constructs, and it was telling Duncan what the enemy was doing.

A storm of bullets swept out.

With the help of her robotic arm, Tasia raised the modified heavy machine gun, which was actually more like a cannon, and unleashed a dense barrage of fire on the enemy. If it were flesh and blood, it would probably have been riddled with holes.

But these large creatures are made of steel, and although they can cause damage, they cannot tear apart their bodies.

"careful!"

The voice just fell.

The foremost dwarven defender launched a shield bash. Its dwarven tower shield weighed at least half a ton. A mercenary hiding in a corner had just pulled out a grenade when he was smashed into a pulp by the shield. The grenade then exploded, knocking one of the dwarven defenders off balance and making him unsteady when he tried to move again.

"No! We must use armor-piercing rounds!"

Tasia glanced at Duncan behind her and shouted, "Armor-piercing rounds are in the metal box next to the shelf. Throw one to me. There's also a sniper rifle over there!"

Duncan immediately turned around, grabbed the metal box, and threw it over.

But in those few seconds, the battle had changed. Under the cover of the dwarven forge guards, Moradin's steel guards at the rear had rushed up to the front of the group. They looked slow, but they were actually very fast.

The massive warhammer roared past!

puff.

The upper body of one mercenary was instantly smashed to pieces, but the heavy warhammer he swung up still had momentum, and like a whirlwind, it struck another person again.

Slash with the momentum.

Duncan had already grabbed a sniper rifle, which was very heavy, weighing about thirty kilograms.

"What the hell!?"

"Can constructs also possess such combat skills?"

At the forefront of the battlefield, a one-sided massacre had already broken out. The other two dwarven constructs were alright, as they moved rather clumsily, but Moradin's Iron Guard was different. Duncan actually saw an extremely sophisticated combat technique in it.

Even when it moves and charges, its steps are perfectly steady, advancing and retreating with perfect rhythm, in harmony with the mechanical structure of its body.

Its attacks even carried enormous inertia. After smashing a repairman into a bloody pulp with a single blow, its massive mechanical body moved with it, shifting to the right, rotating sideways, lunging forward, charging, and the warhammer spun 360 degrees, whistling past and smashing a mercenary hiding behind mechanical cover into a pile of minced meat.

His superb combat skills are unmatched even by many veterans.

Even the mechanical guards of the hive, those mech servants created by the Cult of Machines, are far inferior to its combat skills. Bang!
At that moment, Duncan finally fired his gun.

Unlike the trajectory of arrows, the trajectory of firearms is easier to control. An armor-piercing bullet hit the enemy's right arm, instantly piercing through the thick outer armor and revealing the simple mechanical structure inside. Duncan simply couldn't understand why such a simple mechanical structure could display such superb combat skills.

The dwarf's heavy hammer landed.

Moradin's Iron Guard picked up the warhammer with his other hand and suddenly threw it towards Duncan.

Rumble!
Large sections of the surrounding stone walls had collapsed, and Duncan emerged from the dust in a disheveled state, clutching his sniper rifle and searching for the next firing position.

At this time.

Bert, dressed in esoteric attire, had completed his spell. The method he used was unclear; he simply used holy oil as the spell's medium, and then the passageway was filled with a black, tar-like substance. A spark appeared, and the engulfing flames instantly ignited the entire passageway.

"It's no use!"

"They are not afraid of fire!"

Tasia single-handedly set up three guns, forming a firing position. Two additional mechanical arms were connected to the mechanical nerve bundles in her spine. She operated a heavy machine gun herself, while each of the two mechanical arms controlled a gun. Her firepower even exceeded that of a platoon.

Da da da!
The brief metallic storm finally stopped the enemy from getting closer. Tasia fired while praying, relying on mechanical prayers to correct the trajectory of the bullets, calm the machine spirit, and prevent the bullets from jamming. Even though the barrel was already overloaded and overheated, thanks to her prayers, it did not explode. Instead, it accurately hit the huge enemy in the flames.

This is the ability of a mechanical monk: to correct the trajectory of a ballistic missile using mental power.

Duncan had already set up his sniper rifle again, but just as he was about to aim and fire, Bert, who was diagonally opposite him, suddenly reached out to stop him.

"Wait a moment."

Bert's second spell was almost complete. As he chanted the ancient incantation, a cold wind suddenly swept through the passage, followed by a small blizzard.

The fire was quickly extinguished.

The dwarven constructs, their bodies slightly reddened from the raging flames, reappeared. After a hailstorm, their bodies began to cool rapidly. The hail did no harm to them; such magic might only cause bruises when it hit flesh and blood, leaving ordinary people covered in bumps.

boom!
Duncan instantly understood what was happening and immediately aimed his gun at the enemy's head. This dwarven construct was outrageous; the steel construct even had a metal helmet, making its defense incredibly high.

Armor-piercing projectiles pierce the air.

Click.

The Moradin Steel Guard at the very front was shot in the head, its heavy armor seemingly rendered useless. In its shattered skull, a crystal-like stone could be seen being smashed by the bullet.

After dealing with the most threatening Moradin guards, the rest of the battle became much easier.

Tasia continued her firepower, smashing one of the defenders' kneecaps, then yelled at Duncan, "Keep going! Shoot for the head!"

boom!
Duncan set up his sniper rifle, and the second bullet blew the Forge Guardian's head off. As the head exploded, some silvery-white metal fragments scattered inside its skull, automatically condensing a faint, strange aura.

—Mithril fragment.

By this time, the last dwarf defender had had its legs severed, greatly reducing its threat level. Duncan calmly reloaded and fired a finishing shot.

"Hurry up and save people!"

At that moment, Bert ran out and dragged a buried man out of the collapsed ruins. He reached out and touched the man, but he was already lifeless.

The entire exploration team consisted of eighteen people; eleven died and two were injured, both from being hit by falling rocks.

Almost no one who was even touched by those three dwarven constructs survived.

Anyone hit head-on by a dwarf warhammer was torn to pieces.

"Hold!"

“So many people died!”

Tasia's face was extremely pale, and her initial excitement had vanished. The enemy was different from those in the records. Logically speaking, such old constructs should be easy to deal with, and some of them couldn't even function properly.

These dwarven constructs were different; their functions remained intact. If it weren't for modern firearms providing suppressive fire, the entire group would probably have been wiped out.

A tiny, invisible glimmer of light merged into Duncan's body.

Unlike World One, this is the first time Duncan has stolen abilities from a non-flesh-and-blood enemy, and he has acquired three combat skills at once.

—Defend while attacking, launch a fierce attack, and strike with the momentum.

Duncan had a strange feeling. Unlike the mechanical servants created by the Cult of Mechanics, these dwarven artifacts possessed a trace of soul; they weren't purely mechanical tools. Even in the scenes of the acquired combat skills, the ones wielding the corresponding techniques weren't constructs, but rather bearded dwarven warriors.

These combat skills originated from flesh and blood and were injected into the construct's body through some kind of magic.

"Soul Stone..."

Bert then crouched down and picked up the crystal shard from the ground. "What a pity, it's already broken."

………………

(End of this chapter)