The massive explosion shook the entire tomb. Watching rubble and dust rain down from above, Chen Xi was not worried about the tomb collapsing; he was worried that Ovilia would awaken more Necrons.
He had not determined just how vast this tomb was, but the stasis chamber they had discovered alone contained fifty Necron Warriors. It was hard for Chen Xi not to worry about how dangerous this tomb truly was.
After all, if those fifty Necron Warriors awoke, the people currently at his disposal would not be enough to stop them.
Neither the Gauss Weapons they carried nor their regenerative bodies of Living Metal were something Chen Xi's squad of Sisters of Battle could handle.
Facing them head-on here would only get them wiped out.
So although the Sisters of Battle had destroyed two Canoptek Spiders, Chen Xi still urged Ovilia, "Pack up whatever important things you can carry. We're leaving!"
Judging from the current situation, their actions had probably not yet awakened the Necrons within this tomb. But to avoid further complications, he still decided to withdraw.
"No! Give me a little more time!" Ovilia wailed.
The Magos was currently sprawled on the ground without a shred of dignity, staring obsessively at the intricate mechanical structures beneath the blasted-open floor of the stasis chamber. To a Tech-priest, they were an irresistible marvel, and she was trying to figure out how they had operated for sixty million years.
But Chen Xi did not indulge her at all. While having the Sisters of Battle prepare to retreat, he said coldly, "If you refuse to leave, then I'll have no choice but to leave you here."
"One hour! Give me one more hour! I've already called the servitors from the mine down here. They can take away more things!" Ovilia had stopped caring about anything else. She had even forcibly seized control of the mining servitors in the mine above through viruses and commands, sending them down to carry off everything that could be moved, whether they were suited to the task or not.
"I'm afraid you don't have an hour. I can give you five minutes at most." Chen Xi pressed her, repeatedly glancing toward both ends of the passage as he remained alert for Necrons that might appear at any moment.
"No, how could five minutes possibly be enough to clear this place out? I need at least fifty minutes!" Ovilia used her mechanical arms to help dismantle the things she considered important while continuing to haggle with Chen Xi.
However, Chen Xi did not argue with her. He merely continued to urge her, "We have to leave. That explosion may already have activated this tomb's defense system. I have no desire to be drowned beneath countless undead machines!"
"No, no, no! Just give me half an hour, and I can dismantle this entire stasis chamber intact! With this, I can reproduce this stasis technology! It could even sustain a Forge World! You have to help me!" Ovilia pleaded like a cuckoo crying blood, without the slightest trace of a Tech-Sage's pride.
At that moment, Ovilia felt like an adventurer who had fallen into a vault piled high with mountains of gold, only to be told that she could take away a single coin. The technology contained within this Necron tomb far exceeded her imagination.
This blasted-open stasis chamber alone was enough to occupy her research for a hundred years. It might even let her earn the title of Sage and become a High Sage!
If she could earn the title of Sage and become a High Sage, she could return to the Forge World, use that status as her foundation to exact revenge upon the Forge Master who had exiled her, and reclaim everything that was hers!
"We don't have half an hour. We have to withdraw now." Though Ovilia's state was pitiful, and Chen Xi also wished he could give her more time to loot the place, the runes on the tomb's stone walls were gradually beginning to glow. Chen Xi knew it was truly time to go. "The tomb's defensive mechanisms have awakened. If we don't leave now, we'll all die here!"
As he spoke, Chen Xi reached out to pull Ovilia away.
He truly did not have the leisure to wait for Ovilia to get up and leave on her own.
As for waiting for a Tech-priest to give up alien technological creations right before her eyes and sensibly stand up to cut her losses?
Forget it. Impossible.
At that moment, the servitors she had summoned also arrived. They waved mining equipment originally used to excavate blackstone, cutting apart and dismantling the stasis chamber. It looked like they truly intended to tear down the entire chamber.
The arrival of those servitors immediately eliminated any possibility of Chen Xi forcibly taking Ovilia away.
Seeing this, Chen Xi could only compromise. "Magos Ovilia, you have fifteen minutes to dismantle whatever you consider important. We cannot take everything with us! You need to face reality!"
"Twenty minutes! Twenty minutes! That is my final limit!" Ovilia shouted, then promised Chen Xi, "If you buy me twenty minutes, I can provide you with the equipment for an Astra Militarum light infantry regiment afterward!"
"One thousand sets of Sisters of Battle equipment!" Chen Xi immediately counteroffered.
"Deal!" Ovilia accepted Chen Xi's price without hesitation.
Hearing how readily she agreed, Chen Xi could not help grinding his teeth. He had set the price too low.
Still, obtaining one thousand sets of Sisters of Battle equipment was worthwhile for him. He could only say with some reluctance, "Twenty minutes. I won't wait a second longer! And have your Combat Servitors assist with the defense!"
As he spoke, he divided the squad of Sisters of Battle into two groups of five, deploying them on either side of the passage to defend against any enemies that might appear.
Ovilia said nothing more. While ordering the servitors to accelerate their dismantling and transport of various items, she also handed every Combat Servitor she had brought to Chen Xi.
Twenty minutes passed in the blink of an eye. The Necron tomb's defense mechanisms also reacted to Chen Xi and his group's destruction. An ambush by three Tomb Spyders killed one Sister of Battle on the spot, while the Combat Servitors Ovilia had brought were almost completely wiped out.
These Canoptek Constructs, capable of phasing through walls and moving within them, launched their ambushes directly from the walls and ground. They were truly impossible to guard against.
Chen Xi himself had nearly been hit by a transdimensional beam cannon. Had his Rosarius not activated its shield in time to block the attack, he felt that he would have lost at least one arm.
However, after he cut off one Tomb Spyder's tail with his sword and blew apart another's head with his Plasma Pistol, Ovilia finally completed her work. She promptly supported Chen Xi and shot the remaining Tomb Spyder dead within the wall.
Watching the tail-less Tomb Spyder get blasted apart by the boltguns of two Sisters of Battle, Chen Xi finally looked at Ovilia. "You'd better be ready to leave!"
"Of course, but I suggest we take these two Constructs with us." Ovilia looked at the two destroyed Tomb Spyders, unwilling to let even this small gain slip away.
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