I Wrote Trash Novels to Level Up, Now Everyone Thinks I'm the Hero
Chapter 24: The Guardian Who Won't Stop TalkingThe ten-ton bronze-black fist slammed down onto the granite floor.
BOOM!
A fan-shaped shockwave of spatial force burst from the point of impact, tearing the surrounding tiles into fragments and hurling them up into the endless void above. Purple spatial fractures spread like spiderwebs across the hall's walls, letting out a shrill, grating shriek.
Lucian skidded three meters back, his cloak snapping in the storm of displaced mana.
The single burning red eye on the Guardian Golem's flat metal face swept a scanning beam across the room, locking onto both of them.
The System v2.0 display materialized beside the machine:
[TARGET: GUARDIAN GOLEM (BRONZE ARCHIVIST)]
Level: 38
Rank: C — Monster
Combat Power: 8,200,000 (8.2 MILLION)
Status: 100% immune to raw physical damage. Auto-repairs titanium-alloy structure.
Eight million, two hundred thousand.
More than four times Lucian's current combat power.
But Lucian's eyes weren't on the ten-ton fist or the impenetrable bronze-black armor at all. His gaze was locked onto a single point: a deep violet, octagonal magic gemstone glowing brilliantly behind the metal mesh of the Golem's chest.
That was a Superior-Grade Spatial Magestone — the power core running this ancient machine.
Sold intact at the capital's black market, that stone alone would fetch at least five thousand gold. Smashing it would be the same as personally setting a pile of money on fire.
The Golem slowly withdrew its fist from the shattered floor, its six-meter frame rising upright, metal joints grinding audibly. It tilted its head toward the inverted ceiling, the magical speaker in its chest beginning to vibrate, letting out a slow, solemn, thunderous voice in the Silver Dialect.
[MORTAL TRESPASSERS, YOUR SINS ARE MANY! YOU HAVE SET FOOT UPON THE SEALED SANCTUM OF KNOWLEDGE! BY THE PROTECTIVE DECREE OF ELDER VAEL THE FIRST, THE PENALTY FOR INTRUSION IS ETERNAL CRUSHING UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF...]
"Master, let me draw its fire from the front!"
Sylvia's voice cracked out, her body streaking into a bolt of silver light, launching herself forward. Spatial claws flared from her fingers, carving three cuts of pure void straight at the Golem's red eye, forcing it to turn and defend.
The Golem raised its left arm to block, all the while continuing its three-page-long divine indictment.
[...UNDER THE WITNESS OF THE STARS AND THE LIGHT OF THE SILVER MOON, YOUR SOULS SHALL BE BURIED IN THE BOTTOMLESS ABYSS, TO ATONE FOR THE CRIME OF...]
While the Golem droned through its sentencing, Lucian stood still, watching.
'Syntax Weakness Detection,' combined with his equipment-maintenance experience from his past life, whispered one unshakable truth: any automated machine built by engineers — whether Earth technology or ancient arcane craft — had to have a maintenance access port for emergency shutdown, in case the system ever locked up on a bad line of code.
Lucian's eyes swept quickly across the metal joints of the Golem's body.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Sure enough, right behind its neck, tucked beneath a half-moon-shaped armor plate, was a small rectangular slot stamped with an Ancient script label: 'Mana Maintenance Breaker.'
Blink.
A flash of silver light.
Lucian vanished from the floor and reappeared right on the six-meter Golem's broad bronze-black shoulder.
He didn't draw a sword. He didn't channel any destructive mana. He simply pulled out his silver fruit knife, wedged the tip into the slot behind the creature's neck, and pried it open with a firm twist.
Click.
The protective panel popped open, revealing a tiny bronze lever, labeled: 'POWER OFF.'
Lucian extended a finger and flicked the lever down one notch.
Snap.
[...UNAUTHORIZED INTRUSION SHALL BE M— glk... glk...]
The Golem's thunderous voice choked off mid-sentence, like a radio unplugged from the wall.
The burning red eye flickered twice, then went dark. The roar of the arcane engine in its chest fell completely silent. The threads of spatial mana wrapped around its body dissolved like soap bubbles.
The entire twenty-ton hulk of metal went rigid, lost its balance, and toppled forward like a rotten tree felled at the trunk.
BOOM!
Stone dust exploded across the hall.
Lucian gently hopped back, landing steady on his feet, brushed off his sleeve, and walked over to the chest of the now motionless, face-down Golem.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a specialized magic wrench he'd bought at the Oakhaven black market. He quickly unscrewed the four bronze bolts on the chest mesh, carefully lifted out the three-kilogram Superior-Grade Spatial Magestone, and cradled it gently in his palm.
The stone glowed a beautiful, deep violet, without a single crack.
"Five thousand gold, fully intact," Lucian said, smiling with satisfaction, tucking the stone into his spatial ring. "That's what quality antiques do for you — one twist of a wrench and it just pops right out."
Five steps away, Sylvia slowly lowered her spatial claws.
She looked at the intact Guardian Golem.
Then at the empty socket where its five-thousand-gold power core had been.
"You shut it down without damaging the archive."
Lucian tucked the wrench back into his pocket.
"I shut it down without damaging five thousand gold."
Sylvia stared at him.
"...Of course you did."
Ting! Ting! Ting!
A rapid, brilliant string of chimes rang through his mind, a burst of golden light exploding from the System panel.
[GUARDIAN GOLEM (RANK C — MONSTER) DEFEATED.]
[Over-Threshold Challenge Completed: Opponent's Combat Power exceeded Host's by 4x!]
[LEVEL UP!] Level 23 → Level 25! (MILESTONE LEVEL 25 REACHED!)
[NEW FEATURE UNLOCKED: FOURTH SUPPORT SKILL SLOT.]
[EARLY SKILL FUSION CAPABILITY UNLOCKED.]
[OVERLEVEL BONUS:]
Physical Strength ×2 (184,720 → 369,440)
[SKILL UPGRADE: 'Silent Step' → Lv.5.]
A wave of lava-hot energy surged from Lucian's spine, spreading through every muscle in his body.
The muscle fibers in his arms and chest tightened, cell density doubling instantly. The number 369,440 now displayed under Physical Strength carried a distinct sense of raw power: he could now crush an ordinary iron sword with a single grip, no mana required.
Reaching Level 25 opened a fourth support-skill slot and, for the first time, allowed compatible skills to be fused into a higher form.
Crack... rumble...
Once the Golem collapsed, the massive stone door at the end of the corridor behind it ground its gears and slowly slid open on both sides.
A pure, cool, silvery light — as clean and quiet as autumn moonlight — poured out from within, washing over both Lucian's and Sylvia's faces.
The scent of ancient ash and thousand-year-old hide scrolls filled the air.
Lucian stepped through the stone threshold, into the vast central tomb chamber.
At the center of the octagonal hall, surrounded by drifting pillars of silver light, a transparent crystal coffin floated silently in midair. Directly beneath it, a pitch-black spatial vortex slowly turned, whispering soundlessly with the voice of ten thousand years.
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