Chapter 342: Heirloom (2/2)

Nonetheless, before Eleena could start looking for the old man calling himself her grandfather, a stout man suddenly appeared before her.

“Young Mistress!”

“You’re…” the young girl glanced at the word above the automaton’s head to find that it had turned completely green, meaning that it was a friendly unit.

“My former master has passed his clearance to you.” It said, going down on one knee while handing her an old crystal key respectfully. “From here on out, you are the controller of the Faint Crystal Stratum.”

“Faint Crystal Stratum?” Eleena’s head tilted in confusion.

“It’s the domain I protect, the outermost stratum of the Elven Synchronized Intellect Nation (SIN).”

The automaton answered. “The SIN is divided into five stratums: Faint Crystal, Deep Wall, Dark Sky, Steel Earth, and the Eternal Archives, with each stratum having a different guardian.”

So that was it. The event this time was to clear stratum by stratum until they reach the Eternal Archives—the core of the SIN.

Eleena nodded lightly, gesturing she got the rough idea. “By the way, what happened to your former master?” She couldn’t help asking then.

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“He has infiltrated the outer reaches of the Deep Wall.” The automaton kept its head lowered as it answered truthfully. “He intends to use his dwindling elven stone to suppress the corruption that comes from deep within, to try his best to delay the revival of SIN.”

“In other words, the big tortoise was not reactivating because he is buying us time?”

It was only now that Eleena understood why the tortoise colossus was immobile, even though it only had its outer shell blown up.

Glancing at the key, she asked, “Can I enter the Faint Crystal stratum with this key? How do I use it?”But before she finished, the stout automaton was suddenly on its feet—with a war hammer in its hand.

However, even as Eleena raised a barrier over herself by reflex, she realized that she wasn’t its target: the automaton’s war hammer bypassed her, hitting the undead elf which was about to ambush her.

Nonetheless, the undead elf seemed to have buff itself. Not only did the war hammer that weighed tons failed to send it flying. Instead, the weapon struck its arm with a deafening ring of clashing metals, even igniting sparks! Eleena panicked for a moment since she never fought alone before, although she soon regained her composure to summon a Spear of Victory even as she raised her hand.

And yet, the undead elf merely shifted slightly to evade the radiant spear, and even retaliated by launching a spell resembling Frost Nova at Eleena—the barrier that shielded here immediately became her ball cage instead, obstructing her from moving.

Then, when she finally smashed through the thick ice with her meteor hammer bible, she found that the elf had already killed the automaton, and was using its skin to absorb its mangled body.

With that, the body of the undead became thick and filled, with some extent of facial expression returning to its cheeks.

It sensed her gaze then.

Even so, it didn’t feel threatened and with the rest of its body remaining still, its neck turned more than ninety degrees to face the girl directly to flash a ferocious but otherworldly grin.