Chapter 483

Chapter 483: Rampant Plundering

The Two-Headed Warwolf and Death Scorpion teams advanced steadily.

Guided by the "Warrior" Thor, Death Scorpion’s forces charged forward recklessly.

Yet both lagged far behind Midi’s group, who’d appeared directly on the Tenth Level.

Midi knew maintaining their lead hinged entirely on speed.

If they slowed, pursuing teams—starting with Death Scorpion’s elite—would overtake them.

Against Thor’s core disciples, even Midi’s Black Iron Dragon Flame offered little hope for victory with his ragtag team.

Keeping their advantage became paramount.

Here, Midi’s Mechanics expertise proved invaluable.

Though the "path of wisdom" wasn’t true alchemy examination, the Tenth Level’s labyrinth crawled with countless alchemical mechanisms.

This underground maze’s tangled passageways twisted like roots, where people could easily get lost.

Even navigation-specialized practitioners struggled with dozens of diverging tunnels in every direction.

Worse were the endless traps—authentic mechanisms and magic arrays. While simple to disable individually, their overwhelming numbers multiplied risks, especially in cramped tunnels where traps hit harder.

But Midi faced no such troubles.

His mind-related abilities activated Half-Sight Perception, psychic energy mapping surroundings with crystal clarity.

Every mechanism and magic array lay exposed under this scrutiny.

Though numerous, their revealed positions rendered them harmless. Quantity bred simplicity—these were beginner-level puzzles for a Master of Mechanics.

Midi dismantled them effortlessly.

He took extra care not to fully disarm traps, merely crippling them temporarily: jamming sensors with pebbles, freezing triggers, leaving systems dormant for hours before self-repair.

This let his team pass safely while later groups faced reactivated traps. Even equal disarming speed couldn’t close the gap.

Psychic scouting and mechanical mastery propelled Midi’s team through the maze astonishingly fast.

They looted halls, storehouses, even arsenals. Millennia-old rare materials—some extinct in Mososbury City—filled the Tenth Level.

Ancient Weapons lined armories for the taking. Libraries overflowed with alchemical formulas and Mechanics blueprints.

At the core sat an intact heritage set.

Treasure guardians included not just mechanisms but hordes of Steel Golems—all crumbling before the Black Iron Dragon Flame’s relentless march.

Before long, Midi’s team had cleared over seventy percent of the Tenth Level’s main areas.

The remaining less than thirty percent lay scattered in corners. Navigating those twisted passageways would waste time and risk being overtaken by trailing teams.

Midi decisively abandoned the idea.

For Zaknavan, Mason, and Risen, conquering most of the Tenth Level already exceeded expectations. Quitting while they were ahead proved wisest.

Forty hours after entering the Tenth Level, they reached the next floor’s entrance – another massive Alchemical Gate.

But unlike the previous nine floors, this entrance wasn’t merely guarded by a dismantle-ready gate.

Before the door loomed a twenty-meter-tall Secret Silver Golem, motionless as a steel hill.

"Secret Silver Golem…" Midi’s brow furrowed.

This high-tier alchemical automaton surpassed Steel Golems tenfold. Its defensive power dwarfed steel, coupled with magic resistance. Multiple weapons lurked within its frame for varied combat scenarios.

A single Secret Silver Golem equaled an elite army.

Artificial "wrathspirits" sealed inside granted it intelligence beyond mindless Steel Golems. Worse, severe damage amplified its power unpredictably.

Crucially, alloys resembling materials from the path of wisdom trial reinforced its structure. Midi’s psychic scanning bounced off its shell, revealing nothing.

Breaching its weak point quickly proved impossible. Even with True Dragon Heritage, Midi couldn’t estimate how long frontal combat might take. He doubted level 67 "Warrior" Thor could break it swiftly either.

Yet lingering here would erase their hard-won lead.

Staring at the metallic colossus, Midi finally asked, "Zaknavan, Mason, Risen – will you stake your lives on me?"

"Just tell us the plan," Risen answered instantly.

The Black Dragonkin owed Midi everything – the level seven Calming Potion had saved him from ruin. With Dakhni expelled from Crystal Dragon Fortress after their clash, returning to Flame Serpent seemed unlikely regardless.

"Fighting this thing head-on risks exhaustion and letting others ambush us. We’ll distract it instead," Midi explained.

The veterans immediately grasped his meaning. Mechanics expert Midi needed to bypass the Alchemical Gate while they lured the guardian away.

Simple in concept, perilous in execution.

Gate-opening duration? Distraction timeframe? Countless risks lurked beneath.

But risk-aversion wasn’t Midi’s style. He needed their commitment.

"Reckless," Zaknavan sighed with a wry smile. "I’m in."

"You close-range fighters would struggle anyway. This falls to me," Mason stated coldly, eagerness bleeding through his monotone.

"How long must we hold it?" Zaknavan pressed.

"Twenty minutes," Midi replied.

Twenty minutes? The trio stared at the gate’s complex mechanisms.

"We could buy more time," Risen offered.

"My Mechanics surpass your expectations," Midi countered. "That golem exceeds yours too. Twenty minutes is our limit."

No further objections arose. Having chosen to follow, they’d see it through.

A gunshot cracked.

An armor-piercing bullet sparked against the golem’s left eyelid, leaving only a white scar.

The futile attack revealed the automaton’s terrifying defenses.

With an earthshaking roar, the enraged Secret Silver Golem charged toward the gunfire’s origin.