A Difficult Choice

Not long after that, the Ratmen were driven out of the ruins by the Dwarfs once again. The Dwarfs used blasting charges to collapse the tunnels the Ratmen had dug, completely sealing off the area—killing all the Ratmen was impossible. The Dwarfs, who had fought these vermin for hundreds of years, knew very well that the rats had burrowed through practically the entire continent beneath the surface. Unless the world itself was destroyed, completely eradicating them was nothing but a pipe dream.

But for them, this was enough.

"Great work, big guy!!"

Brock carried an ax covered in Ratmen flesh over one shoulder and pounded Duanmu Huai's calf with his other hand. Dwarfs were short to begin with, and with Duanmu Huai standing two and a half meters tall, Brock was about the size of a small dog in front of him—the kind that couldn't even reach his knees by jumping.

"I never figured you'd be this capable!"

Brock was genuinely delighted. In fact, at first, he had only hoped Duanmu Huai would help share some of the pressure. After all, that big man was wearing heavy armor and carrying a warhammer. At a glance, he clearly wasn't someone easy to deal with. As long as he could draw some of the Ratmen's attention, things would go more smoothly for Brock's side.

But Brock hadn't expected Duanmu Huai to charge straight to the front, withstand the Ratmen's fiercest attacks, and firmly hold their attention. This allowed the Dwarfs to fight with their full strength. It could be said that Duanmu Huai deserved the greatest credit for how easily they had driven back the Ratmen army this time.

Not to mention...

"You even killed the hero of those stinking rats!"

"A hero?"

Duanmu Huai was stunned when he heard that. During the battle, he had indeed received a System Prompt that 1,500 Experience Points had been credited to him, but he had been too busy bashing rats to check it at the time. Now that Brock had brought it up, he was just as confused. Brock, however, burst out laughing and waved someone over. Soon, a Dwarf came over carrying a Ratman's head.

"That's it! Death Master Sneaky! I never thought it would die at your hands! Hahahahaha!!!"

As he spoke, Brock couldn't help laughing again. Death Master Sneaky was a powerful assassin among the Ratmen, an expert in killing from the shadows. Brock had fought it several times already, and each time he had returned in defeat. The reason was simple: this Ratman master assassin was far too powerful. Even Dwarf armor couldn't defend against its three poisoned blades. Yet this time, the creature had actually been killed by Duanmu Huai. Brock felt as refreshed as if he had gulped down a great mouthful of fiery liquor.

Now that Sneaky was dead, those stinking rats lurking beneath the Gray Mountain Range should pack up and leave!

"This wasn't my achievement. Okegis was the one who killed it."

After hearing Brock's introduction, Duanmu Huai finally understood why that rat had been so tough. He hadn't even managed to bring it down with a direct blow from his hammer. Even if the opponent was an assassin focused on agility, as a hero unit, it was probably above Level 35. Duanmu Huai was only Level 21. Even counting the Thunder Warhammer's attack power, he still couldn't kill it with one strike.

Fortunately, Okegis had been providing support from nearby, allowing them to eliminate an unexpected major threat. The Ratmen didn't just enjoy using poison; they also loved assassinating people. Duanmu Huai certainly didn't want a master assassin thinking about him every day, so it was better that the creature was dead.

"Hmm, that's still the achievement of both of you. I'll report this to the High King! He'll definitely be pleased!"

Judging from Brock's appearance, he clearly had a deep grudge against that master assassin... Duanmu Huai remembered that the Dwarfs' High King seemed to have a little book specifically for recording the names of his enemies. Every time one was killed, he crossed it off. He wondered whether this master assassin had been written in that High King's grudge book.

"From this moment on, you're friends of the Dwarfs! We've always been generous to our friends! What do you want? Just say the word!!"

At Brock's words, Duanmu Huai's eyes lit up. He turned his gaze toward Brock.

"Mr. Brock."

"Just call me Brock. We've fought side by side and hacked up Ratmen together, so we're brothers! None of that empty formal nonsense!"

"All right, Brock... are you planning to explore the ruins next?"

"Hmm..."

Brock paused at that, then looked around before nodding.

"That's the plan. We also need to see whether those Ratmen left any nasty surprises behind and clean them all up."

"Could I take a look around the ruins and find something interesting?"

"Oh?"

Brock was somewhat surprised by Duanmu Huai's request, but after thinking it over, he nodded.

"No problem! Take whatever catches your eye. We Dwarfs aren't stingy!"

"Then thank you."

Hearing Brock's reply, Duanmu Huai finally let out a sigh of relief.

The reason he had made this request wasn't because his archaeological obsession had flared up. On the contrary, compared to the Dwarfs, who still didn't understand the situation here, Duanmu Huai had recognized at a glance that these ruins were very likely Ancient Saint Ruins!

The Old Ones were the creator gods of this planet's ancient era. Rumor had it that they had created humanity, the Elves, the Dwarfs, and other races. And that was indeed true, except the Old Ones weren't creator gods at all—they were an extraterrestrial civilization with extremely advanced technology. Legend said the Old Ones looked just like frogs. They possessed unimaginable technological and magical power, standing at the pinnacle of both science and sorcery.

The reason the Old Ones had come to this world was to create species capable of opposing the Warp's daemons and Chaos. The Elves, Dwarfs, and other races had all been created for that purpose.

But then something went wrong. The Teleportation Gates the Old Ones had constructed on this world collapsed, and Chaos poured in on a massive scale. Seeing that things had taken a turn for the worse, the Old Ones simply abandoned this experimental ground and fled without even stopping to put on their pants. They ran no slower than a mistress caught in bed by someone's husband.

After that, Chaos invaded this world in force, leaving the entire planet on the brink of destruction. In the end, however, the remaining races joined forces and defeated Chaos, using the Great Vortex to seal off the entire Warp Space and, in doing so, save the planet.

These were historical facts that players discovered later while conducting archaeological research. After that, the Old Ones never appeared again. Even after the game received several more updates, players still couldn't find the slightest trace of them. Some players even suspected that the creatures had hidden away in some remote corner of the universe—or perhaps they hadn't escaped in time and had been wiped out by the Chaos Gods.

Or maybe the game company had simply forgotten about the plot hole it had dug.

In any case, although the Old Ones had fled, many of their technological relics still remained in the ruins scattered throughout this world. They even included an entire, intact technological development tree!

After all, the Old Ones had fought Chaos for who knew how many years and possessed abundant experience in combating it. As a result, their technology was highly effective against the Chaos Gods and the corruption of Chaos. On the ladder rankings, players had generally rated its strength as T1, while a few technologies had even reached T0.

The best way to obtain these technologies was to search the ruins for the Old Ones' technological relics, bring them to the Hall of Inquisition Library for analysis, and then construct them.

Before crossing over, Duanmu Huai had indeed known of several locations where Old Ones' technological relics definitely existed. However, those places had all been contested by major guilds, and as a solo player, he could neither afford nor make use of them. Besides, all the locations Duanmu Huai knew about were in Zhendan. As for whether this Ancient Saint Ruins in the Gray Mountain Range contained any technological relics, he couldn't say for sure.

But... wouldn't he know if he looked?

With Brock's permission, Duanmu Huai put his mind at ease and began wandering around the ruins. He was fairly familiar with Ancient Saint Ruins, after all, since most of them were quite similar. It was like a modern person traveling to a Fallout wasteland: one glance was usually enough to tell what each building had been used for.

Before that, however... Duanmu Huai opened the system, and the settlement for this mission appeared soon afterward.

Timed Mission "Disinfection" Complete!

Mission Rating: Outstanding

Player gained 3,000 Experience Points, plus an additional 2,000 Experience Points. Level increased to LV22. Attribute Points +1. Specialization Points +1.

Additional Feat Acquired: Relentless Assault

Relentless Assault: When attacking an enemy suffering from a debuff, +5% critical hit chance and +15% critical hit damage.

How should he put it...

After assigning the attribute point to Strength again and raising his Space Marine Combat Training level, Duanmu Huai looked at the effect of this additional feat and felt somewhat conflicted.

This feat was actually useful to him right now. Simply put, he could take off his helmet and fight the enemy. His LV2... no, now LV3 Intimidation was enough to apply a debuff to the opponent, after which he could continuously trigger Relentless Assault.

But... if he did that, what would happen to his dignity?

Should he preserve his dignity or pursue greater power? That was the question...

For Duanmu Huai, this was truly a difficult choice.