Drill Crisis

In ancient times, the Giant Civilization created countless wonders. For thousands of years, humans and elves had tried to reproduce some of that technology.

This had also made the Giants' homeland, Xi'endrick, a highly sought-after destination for adventurers.

Back when Carl was still receiving basic education, some experts and scholars had declared that modern civilization was no worse than the Giants' civilization of old.

But after seeing the thing before her, Carl felt that anyone who could say such a thing had either been influenced by political factors or was simply trying to attract attention.

"Oh~ What superb smelting technology! And this technique for etching magic runes... If I can fully understand the technology used in this thing, my Power Armor's combat power will definitely rise another level!"

As she excitedly ran her hands over the machine's exterior, Carl failed to notice that the enormous drill had begun to slowly rotate.

But although she hadn't noticed, Hopp had.

So Hopp kicked Carl's Power Armor.

"Look behind you! That thing's started up!"

"What?"

Before Carl could understand what was happening, Hopp had already grabbed her wrist and thrown her directly away from the drill.

Hopp herself used the rivets on the machine to rapidly move in the opposite direction from the drill.

"Grrr~"

As the drill churned, the water in the cavern began to change direction.

"We have to get out of here, now!"

After catching up with Carl again, Hopp pressed close to Carl's helmet and shouted loudly.

The current in the cavern was growing increasingly violent.

The mud on the bottom was being stirred up and quickly spreading throughout the cavern.

Visibility in the water was dropping lower and lower, and it was clear that the situation wouldn't improve anytime soon.

"No! Visibility's too low! We might get sucked into that drill! Hold on to me! I have an idea!"

Realizing that the situation was bad, Carl quickly recalled the rough structure of the drill machinery she had seen earlier.

Apart from their size, Giants and humans actually had few major differences in their physiological structures.

As a result, much of the Giants' mechanical design was entirely compatible with that of humans.

What Carl had to do was find the machine's entrance in a short time, then use her Artificer abilities to open it and get herself and Hopp inside.

Dragging Hopp with one hand, Carl struggled to swim upward.

She remembered that there seemed to be something resembling a hatch somewhere toward the rear of the drilling machine.

Following the metal plates upward, Carl searched with her extremely limited field of vision, relying on her vague memory.

The current was becoming more and more turbulent. Swept along by the undertow, Carl and Hopp found it increasingly difficult to move.

Seeing that they were both about to be carried away by the current, Hopp was about to advise Carl to leave, but Carl shouted:

"Found it!"

With her palm pressed against a metal plate, Carl felt her spiritual power come into contact with some kind of magical mechanism.

Driving her psychic energy, Carl tried to quickly understand how the magical mechanism worked.

Just then, a powerful current swept over them. Carl, who had been clinging tightly to the metal plate, staggered and was directly swept away.

"Hah!"

At the critical moment, Hopp immediately unleashed Rage.

Her height of just over 1.6 meters suddenly increased. Her lengthened arm seized Carl in one motion and pressed her back against the metal plate.

However, as her body grew larger, the water exerted even greater resistance against her.

The fingers that had been gripping the rivets began to buckle under the force of the current, slipping one after another from the rivets' raised edges.

At the critical moment, a flash of Blu-ray flickered over Carl, and the mechanism beside her immediately made a noise.

The enormous hatch opened, and muddy water instantly flooded into the hollow space inside.

Because Carl and Hopp were too close to the hatch, they were directly "swallowed" inside.

Soon, the hatch closed again. As the mechanisms inside the machine began operating, the muddy water was gradually pumped out. Carl and Hopp knelt on the ground, still shaken.

It took quite a while before the two of them recovered.

"Phew~ We're saved. So what exactly is this thing?"

Hopp removed her underwater breathing helmet and patted her chest, still shaken. She felt that if they had been even a little slower, they would have been sucked into the drill and turned into ground meat.

"I think this is an artifact of the ancient Giants. This machine might have been equipment they used to mine Khyber Dragonshards. Whew~, luckily I chose Giant Language and Giant Runes as my elective ancient languages back then. Otherwise, the two of us might really have died here."

After removing her Power Armor, Carl looked at the door, which was at least six meters tall, and secretly congratulated herself on their good fortune.

The Giants' language was phoneticized using Dwarven, much like the relationship between Chinese characters and pinyin.

After learning Giant Language, she could basically understand Dwarven as well.

The reason Carl had chosen that ancient language as an elective had partly been to take the lazy route.

Of course, the optimization effect of Giant Runes on magical items had also been one of the reasons Carl ultimately chose it.

"So what do we do now? Keep going deeper, then shut down this machine?"

As she spoke, Hopp's body gradually returned to normal.

The drill outside was still operating. If they went out now, they might be swept into the current immediately.

So what Hopp had suggested was indeed what they had to do next.

"We don't have any other choice, do we?"

Carl shrugged and craned her neck upward, beginning to inspect the magical mechanisms on the inner side.

By observing with both her naked eyes and psychic energy, she quickly found the mechanism that activated the inner hatch.

But when she saw the crystal panel bearing several runes, Carl's expression became somewhat strange.

I didn't expect the Giants to have used a numerical-password unlocking mechanism tens of thousands of years ago. And it looks like it's even a touchscreen!

While feeling somewhat amazed, Carl released her psychic energy and made contact with the crystal panel.

Her psychic energy connected Carl to the magical mechanism inside the crystal panel in a special way.

After touching the spiritual power remaining inside the magical mechanism, Carl closed her eyes and began analyzing it.

This mechanism also uses ten runes to set a six-character password. Hmm~, judging from the magic patterns inside the mechanism, there doesn't seem to be any limit on the number of attempts. Looks like I can use brute force.

After carefully examining the mechanism's functions, Carl narrowed her eyes and began cracking the password like a hacker.

Unlike a purely mechanical lock, this special mechanism could only be opened after the correct runic password was entered.

Many modern safes also used this anti-theft method, and some even limited the number of attempts.

Aside from Artificers, probably only certain Rogues would dare try opening such a mechanism.

Her psychic energy quickly sensed the structure and magic patterns inside the mechanism. As Carl watched the runes light up on the crystal panel, her brows gradually furrowed.

"Clouds, death, wyrm, enemy, flames, friendship..."

Manipulating her psychic energy, Carl infused magical power into the runes representing each of these meanings.

"Hiss~"

Amid the sound of an airlock opening, the hatch leading into the machine slowly opened.