"Arlan, you'll be our front line. Aelinor will stay behind you to detect traps and cover our flanks. I'll be guarding our rear to protect both our mages and our backs in case of an ambush."Erwyn's marching formation was solid for now. Since I was the most hardy of the group, it makes sense that I would be in front to take any hostile charges. Protecting Tessa and Johann was top priority since they had barely any skill in close quarters combat. Johann only has a small amount of knowledge with a knife and Tessa didn't have the aptitude to use weapons. But I remember how long those chants take. They need as much time uninterrupted as possible to get out their spells.

These cramped hallways were a blessing and a curse. On one hand, my spear gave me an advantage here. On the other, both the mages could only cast lower tier spells to reduce friendly fire. They couldn't summon a lightning strike in these enclosed quarters.

Oracle was constantly giving me warnings in my head. There were numerous red dots littering my radar up ahead and around us. I could only guess that most of them were in the lower floors. Unfortunately I can only tell that they are golems. What kind they are is anyone's guess. This facility was a Quality Assurance test lab during the Old Empire. I feel like a test dummy in a new car driving towards a wall, waiting for it to crash into pieces. This was the kind of place it was, where the creators would watch and write down the results.

Our careful pace brought us to a large descending staircase. We clamored down with Aelinor walking only a foot behind me. She kept a watchful eye forward, looking for anything out of the ordinary with an almost sentinel-like gravity. It's a bit different from what I was used to.I remember patrolling the desert or abandoned villages separated from each member of my fireteam by at least one hundred paces. It was in case of an IED attack, so that if one exploded only one of us would be a casualty. Of course I'm... familiar with that detail. Sometimes the worst case scenario would pass and the road we traveled was daisy chained with multiple devices. All it would take was a simple phone hooked up remotely to the detonator and disaster would strike. Those were the kind of horror stories I've been told during my deployments. A part of me was glad I'd never have to face that kind of uncertain danger again.

Then again, with all that's happened, one kind of danger was replaced with another.

[Caution: Multiple hostile targets are approaching!]

Behind me, I shouted, "We have incoming!"

Our group tensed as we readied our weapons. Whatever was coming was rushing towards us like a pack of wolves. Erwyn was right when he said that monsters would start attacking as we continued down the second floor.

What looked like several golems entered our view. Unlike me, they were half my size and half the bulk of my frame. In their hands they held a large dagger and a buckler. Watching us with a single large camera like eye, they held their weapons up with lethal intent.

"Are these... Sentry Golems?" Aelinor said startlingly, "They look more advanced than the ones that are suppose to be here!"

Now that I think about it, the ones that Kleid had fought while we ascended the ruins I was found in were more mannequin like in appearance than the golems in front of us. It must be the [Event] causing this. Everything here is now running at full operational capacity.

Whatever the case may be, we stick to the plan. I rush forward, spear in hand towards the group of golems. My weapon hits it's mark as I stab it through the head of the first golem. Another one falls before me as an arrow launched by Aelinor pierces it's unblinking eye.

Three more golems take advantage of my position to slash at me with their daggers. Gashes appear on my arms as I desperately regressed backwards to avoid their advance. I hear multiple chants behind me as two of them are launched back across the hallway by a spear of ice and a bolt of lightning. Tessa and Johann were concentrating through the din of battle as two more golems had Erwyn occupied by their sudden rear ambush.

With those ones out of the way I grabbed the last golem by it's head and sent it flying with my [Rocket Punch], collapsing it's frame against the wall with a loud crunch of metal.

The sound of metal on stone reverberated down the hallway as more golems have come to join the fray to replace the ones that lost. We slowly continued our advance as more waves of these golems kept approaching. It seemed like an unrelenting assault that just kept pounding against us. They were much weaker than orcs but they had numbers on their side. By the time we could see the staircase to the next floor, we were still beset by a large body of them.

I could hear hoarse breathing from behind me. The end was in sight but they were having a hard time keeping up. No more golems were coming but there was still a small horde in front of us while Johann switched to support Erwyn, who was tiring, with guarding our rear from another smaller ambush. Both Tessa and Aelinor were taxed of their strength with fighting off the ones in the front.

"Guhh.. there's still too many..." Aelinor rasped.

"If... I could get a second to catch my breath... I can keep casting but.." Even Tessa could barely get out that sentence.

They were right. Everyone was getting tired from the nonstop fighting and fatigue was setting in. As the only one unaffected by the constant skirmishes I could continue the fight. The problem was that I was only one person. Without their cover fire, the golems here would converge on me. With my metal body covered in superficial lacerations, I had a hunch that their weapons could pierce through my frame without issue. Whatever these golems were equipped with were much deadlier than what the normal people living in this world had and they weren't even channeling mana. Those daggers were just naturally that sharp.

For this, I'll have to use one of my trump cards.

"Aelinor! Support our rear with what strength you have left. Tessa, make a barrier around them just in case! I'm going to use my magic to end this last group!" I shouted. I didn't want to drain this much mana at such a short time but I don't have a choice.

Following my directions, they moved back to help Erwyn and Johann with the golems attacking our rear flank. With them out of the way, I could cast safely. I'm going to nuke these golems into pieces.

I raised both my palms towards the advancing machines. The moment I noticed Tessa's barrier went up, two large red circles of magic appeared in front of me.

"[Fireball]!"

Twin balls of searing flame launched from both my hands and raced towards the golems. It hit their front line as heat and flame raced towards us, magnified by the enclosed space."Nhh!? Arlan!!" I could hear Tessa yell as I was engulfed by the flashback. Intense combustion followed by black smoke covered my view. Everything fell into silence as the ashes littering the air started to settle and my sight returned.

Nothing was left of the golems in front of us. Only bits and pieces of their frames remained scattered across the floor. I then checked myself over to see if I had any damage. Luckily there was none other than some sear marks on my exposed frame and holes in my clothing caused by burns. The cloak was unfazed, remarkably. Lord Selvin wasn't lying about the quality gear the knights wore. I should of asked him if he could give me clothes that had the same enchantments too. At this rate, I might as well go naked or wear a toga from rags if I keep doing this.

I looked behind me and noticed that everyone else was safe. Tessa's barrier had protected them from the blast as Erwyn and Aelinor finished with the last of the golems in the rear.

Tessa rushed over to me, "Arlan, are you hurt!?"

"I'm fine, Tessa," I prodded my sliced forearm in demonstration, " I can't feel pain, remember?""O-Oh, right... sorry, I keep forgetting that about you." she replied earnestly. Tessa keeps seeing me like a normal person and not a machine. I'm lucky that I've met her. I don't think I would have coped as well to this if I hadn't. Then again, the constant danger I've put myself in has made me think of this as an advantage. I would have gone crazy otherwise.

"Lets start heading down the staircase a bit and rest there." Erwyn announced, "Another ambush would be disastrous."

We descend downwards until we find what appears to be the midway point of the stairs. Sitting down, we each pull out our rations to give us all back some energy. Myself included since those fireballs took a huge chunk of my mana pool. Everyone was exhausted from the ordeal we've faced. Aelinor had to forgo her meal for a bit to help Erwyn recover his wounds using her healing magic. Despite facing a considerably less amount than the front line, he had to hold his own against a handful of sentry golems to protect our mages and had taken a few serious lacerations. I could hear him cursing under his breath, wishing he had brought his shield with him.

While we recuperated, I told them that the amount of enemies around us had decreased dramatically. The number of pings on my radar was once again countable. It wasn't just a blob of red like before. I still didn't know what kind of enemies we'd be facing though. Erwyn remarked that there's a good possibility that there could be Elite units waiting for us. Stronger versions of enemies we've faced before, much like how the Orc General was compared to the other orcs.Once everyone had their chance to recover, we decided to continue downwards in formation once more. The hallway was eerily silent as we marched on broken only by the sound of clanks echoing in the distance. Oracle wasn't responding and none of the red pips seemed to move towards us. It was like the first floor all over again.

"Stop!" Aelinor shout broke the quiet surrounding us, "Everyone stay where you are!"

She inched past me in a methodical pace eyeing each stone tile laid down on the floor as she passed them by. After walking a few feet ahead, she suddenly stops in her tracks.

"There's a floor trap right here," she yells behind us, "The entire floor ahead is one giant pressure plate."

This must be a dungeon trap then. I wonder what it does. Like does it shoot out darts or toss a rolling boulder at us?

Aelinor starts to chant and a tan magic circle appears in front of her raised hands.

"[Create Earth]!"

A large rock the size of a desk appears in midair and crashes down into the ground. The sound of metal on metal echoes throughout the hall as the sides of each wall in front of Aelinor rushes forward to meet each other and close in a resounding clap. Hot damn, this trap looked like something out of a horror movie! If we had stepped on that we would have been crushed between two slabs of rock and turned into a mush of tissue and my metal bits.

"I don't know if it's a one time use or if it'll rearm so I'll to disarm it," she says as the slabs of stone wall slowly inch back to their original position.

She bends down and starts to search the tiles until she find the one she's looking for with an audible "Ah hah!".

She looked back at us with a embarrassed grin, "A-Ah, I know I was suppose to teach you three how to disarm something like this but I think it's best we do that another time. Clearing this [Event] as soon as possible is our top priority after all." She pulled out some tools from her pouch and went to work on whatever devices she had found underneath that tile.

Erwyn snickered to himself, "I'm sorry, Arlan. If it wasn't for this [Event] we would be able to teach you properly but this isn't the best time to be mentoring anyone."

I nodded in agreement, "It's fine. Getting out of here alive is our top priority."

Our march through the third floor was littered with traps unfortunately. Pressure plates and tripwires abound. What kind of QA course were they using here? These hardly seem like a place meant for testing brainless golems. These were too intricate. It makes me wonder if ruins were suppose to be "training grounds" like Hina said. But the robotic voice over the intercom had said this was a golem testing facility. You wouldn't test golems with traps. Unless they were smart. The only smart ones were craftsman golems. None of the combat golems displayed any thought or intelligence. Just mindless drones.

And then there's me. The Old Empire was keeping their secrets alright. I get the feeling I'm less of a and more of a prototype. The supposed visionary that made me was long dead but advances in technology kept going on. They must have figured out how to put a soul inside a golem. The craftsman golems were all made to be passive for a reason.

A golem intelligent enough to operate independently with decision making skills and superior firepower but still be obedient toward it's masters to the letter. The perfect soldier. But if they did, there would already be intelligent combat golems running around just like me. Why was I the only one? Celecia was the one who put me in this body. Maybe they couldn't figure it out after all. Maybe they figured out something else entirely.

We descended into the fourth floor as I noticed the red blips on my radar started to converge on our location again. Oracle detected only a couple of them in front of us. Less of a horde and more of a group. This could be the Elites that Erwyn was talking about.

Only a minute had passed until four of them came into view. Sentry Golems like the ones we fought above. Strangely, they didn't approach us like the others and kept their distance."What are they doing?" Johann asked. The golems just continued to stared at us.

Erwyn pulled out his sword, "Well if they're just waiting for us, we'll bring the fight to them." We all readied our weapons once more. The golems ahead lined up in formation and took a knee.

"Wait, stop!" I yelled instinctively. I know that position they were taking. My fears came to light when I noticed the weapons they had slung over them being pulled out. Those weren't crossbows...

"Tessa! Barrier!! NOW!!" I shouted with all my might as I pointed my palm towards the golems.

"[Fireball]!"

Pouring in was left of my mana, I unleash one last blast of fire towards the golems as Tessa quickly chanted her barrier spell to shield our allies. Once again the corridor in front of us combusted in a blaze and tore through their frames, incinerating them where they knelt.

"Hahhh~! Arlan, if you could only keep doing that, this would be a cakewalk," commented Johann from behind me.

"Unfortunately, I'm now completely drained of mana. It'll be a while before I can cast again." I replied back with irritation. I began to walk over to the scattered pieces of metal to confirm my suspicions.

Searching through the bits and pieces I found what I was looking for and picked it up. It was different than what I used but the form was still the same despite looking like some knock off toy copy. I pointed it down the hallway and pulled the trigger but nothing happened. Was it loaded with ammunition? Or maybe because it came from the dungeon is why I can't use it? I don't see anything resembling a magazine on this thing so I don't even know if it was loaded.

My musings came to an end when the somewhat intact weapon had started to disintegrate in my hands along with the rest of the golem parts strewn around me.

Tessa had managed to catch up with me as I watched what was left of the device sift through my hands like sand, "I've never seen you panic like that before, Arlan..." concern littered her voice, "Was there something different about those golems?"

I turned back to face her, "Yeah... it was the weapons they were using. If I didn't cast that [Fireball] we would have died right then."

"Were they that dangerous?" she asked, "I've never seen them before. They looked a bit like crossbows."

Of course she wouldn't recognize what they were. I don't think anyone here has ever seen a rifle before other than me. One that looked way to similar to the one I used when I was alive. The Old Empire was advanced. I don't think it wouldn't be in their power to invent something like guns. But that rifle looked too similar to the models on Earth. The Empire existed thousands of years in the past here and I died in what felt like a month ago.

How long was I dead for?