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Soul Howl sighed a little as he looked at the corridor, which had quickly become eerily silent.

「So the perpetrator was the Machina Guardian after all. I didn’t think it could attack like that.」

Mira glared at the corridor, obscured by a mist-like smoke, a stronger burnt smell, and waves of heat.

The two continued running back, only stopping after they were past the next corner, where they analyzed what they had just learned.

First off, that attack, Ancient Ray, was something Mira and Soul Howl knew about. That was why they had reacted in such an exaggerated manner to escape.

But that was also why they were so surprised. Paladins were said to have the strongest defenses of all classes, but not even one of them at the level of the Nine Wisemen could survive a direct hit of that attack for longer than a second. On top of that, the beam traveled at the speed of light, making it impossible to dodge reactively. The only way to evade it was to be prepared to be out of the way preemptively.

「It’s safe to say this is another change brought forth by this world becoming reality, I’d say. Didn’t Machina Guardian only use that attack when under 20% HP before?」
「That’s how I remember it being. This isn’t the first occurrence though, there were all sorts of changes in other places too.」

Mira and Soul Howl sighed as they sat down against the wall, facing the corridor covered in even more soot.

The two remembered Ancient Ray being Machina Guardian’s trump card, which only came into play once 80% of its health was gone. That was how all players talked about it, and Mira and Soul Howl had also verified that after fighting the boss many times.

But this time they had not done nearly enough damage for that, so it was extremely early for Machina Guardian to use that attack.

And yet they had witnessed the attack be used. In other words, they already had to be watchful of the worst attack being usable by Machina Guardian this early into the fight.

「And it seemed to be entirely in response to your Holy Knight, Elder. Both the way it looked at the corridor and the reaction seemed like a countermeasure against units buying time.」
「True, it did seem that way. Usually Machina Guardian returns to its idle state after all intruders are dealt with, but this time it anticipated more.」

Machina Guardian had expected further intrusions, so it went to check the corridor after dispatching the golem. It had already planned countermeasures in such a short time.

「I started that last night, so it figured that out in a single day. This complicates things a lot.」

Soul Howl had planned on dragging out the fight over many days, not expecting Machina Guardian to find a way to prevent that so quickly. He looked shocked, but not defeated in the slightest.

「Either way, this warrants further investigation.」
「It’s not like we have any choice.」

A sly grin took over Mira and Soul Howl’s lips as they stood up and ran through the scorched corridor.

The investigation Mira mentioned meant going to observe the enemy’s patterns, seeing which attacks were used under which conditions. That was something everyone did when facing a powerful enemy, so Mira and Soul Howl were used to doing it as well.

First they would check if movement played a role. Mira’s Holy Knight had been moving earlier, so maybe that had caught the boss’ attention. So now they would try to repeat the same, but with the Holy Knight still.

They peeked over the last corner, and saw that Machina Guardian was no longer next to the arena’s entrance. So Mira summoned a Holy Knight and a Dark Knight, the latter of which walked into the arena.

The Dark Knight went through the gate, and a similar scene as before repeated, but it was not identical. Machina Guardian attacked instantly, but this time the Dark Knight blocked with its sword, and barely a moment later a second mechanical leg wrecked the summon.

「Well, let’s get ready to run just in case.」
「Yeah, in a bit.」

Mira and Soul Howl continued watching carefully as Machina Guardian moved. The boss got closer to the corridor to look inside, and the two got ready to sprint away.

The Holy Knight remained perfectly still against the wall.

But that had no effect whatsoever.

「Retreat!」
「You said it!」

Mira and Soul Howl instantly turned around and ran away. Soul Howl left multiple golems behind to act as a barrier again, and a moment later the destructive beam sent waves of heat around the corner.

「Standing still did nothing.」
「It seems so.」

Their first test concluded, the two returned to the corridor, which looked even darker than before.

「That heat is truly incredible.」

Machina Guardian was no longer in sight, having likely returned to its idle spot. But all the walls still radiated heat from Ancient Ray, as if they were pieces of stone left under the sun for a long time.

「It still feels like the heat dispersed too soon.」
「Now that you mention it, you’re right.」

Ancient Ray definitely carried many thousands of degrees of heat, judging from its appearance and power. But for some reason the heat remaining in the corridor was low enough that a human could stand it without much issue.

「The secret must lie beneath these walls…」

Mira carefully placed her hand on the charred walls. She carefully felt around the corner, but oddly enough it did not feel particularly hot nor cold, which was really strange considering the attack that passed through.

「Maybe it’s just a really good conductor of heat? Either way, it works better for us.」
「Right. Long live ancient cultures!」

If the lingering heat was more powerful, it would slow down their investigation. Luckily they did not have to worry about that, probably thanks to some ancient technology. That was a common occurrence in locations with ancient in the name, and ancient technology was a blanket term for useful yet mysterious contraptions.

「Now let’s see if it’s a singular entity.」

That was the next step, Mira only summoned a Dark Knight to go into the boss arena again. The two of them peeked over the corner to see what would happen.

The Dark Knight marched on, entering the arena. Once again, Machina Guardian attacked, which the Dark Knight dodged before striking back. Almost instantly, it moved again to dodge the attack coming from another leg of Machina Guardian.

「Good, good!」

Their goal was to learn more, but Mira’s refusal to lose was interfering. The Dark Knight also had some learning capacity, but it was far inferior to Machina Guardian’s, and was defeated by the third attack.

「Grrr…」

Mira looked disappointed at her smashed Dark Knight, even though it tried its best.

「Now comes the important part.」

Soul Howl poked at her head, making sure she was still paying attention. There was a chance they would still need to flee.

Mira shook off her disappointment and focused on Machina Guardian again.

It moved just like the previous times, getting closer to the entrance and lowering its main body to peek into the corridor.

It looked like a heavily armored tank, but if it split open to reveal the red crystal inside, it would be the sign to run away.

The two held their breaths and waited, remaining perfectly still. After almost two minutes, Machina Guardian stood up and its heavy steps echoed from the distance, without using Ancient Ray.

「So we can conclude that it won’t attack if there’s nothing in the corridor.」
「At least it seems that way. But it will attack if it sees anything.」

They looked at the darkened corridor leading to the boss room again. So far they concluded that whenever something entered the arena, Machina Guardian would look into the corridor, and use Ancient Ray if it saw anything. Otherwise it would just return to being idle.

「As far as its learning capabilities are concerned, it attacked the same way both times. I wonder just how intelligent it actually is.」
「We know that it’ll learn a strategy if we use it many times, but it’s hard to say to what extent. Using the same tactic one or two times might be fine, but ten or twenty times might give it enough experience. Or maybe it just takes time for it to process data?」
「Hmmm, that could be an option too.」

Soul Howl’s plan with fifty golems had worked flawlessly the first night, but the second it was stopped when forty still remained. That was the time it took for Machina Guardian to come up with a countermeasure.

「Either way, we should try to avoid repeating a pattern for too long.」
「Yes, I think placing the golems past the corner should do the trick for tonight. But we’ll have to see how it goes tomorrow.」

Only the corridor leading straight to the boss room was charred black, the walls around the corner were still white. It should be safe for Soul Howl to place the golems there, at least for that night.

「What a mess, but at least we can go back for now.」

Soul Howl let out an exhausted sigh before quickly creating golems.

「You’re right, I’ve gotten quite hungry as well.」

Mira looked at the golems with reverence, as if she was praying to them in gratitude for buying them time over the night, and walked away from there.