Pillar of Yita

Crossing through that hatch door, is the place where those few people came down before, but what’s behind the door is anyone’s guess—if luck is good, it might be empty inside, possibly leading to the secret hideout of the Blind Followers. But if luck is bad, there might be guards specifically posted behind the door; if it’s the latter, a battle is inevitable.

And since the door is tightly closed, Fang Hong had no way to send something in to scout, nor are there any spells that could penetrate a few feet of stone, let alone the possibility that the other side may have precautions against spells, so any casting may also be detected.

The defensive side is always more prepared than the attacking side—

There, an iron ladder hanging beneath that hatch door, and as a profession with thick skin, Wu Xiaopang naturally took the lead, climbing up first. He pushed open the hatch with his shoulder, and with a soft sound, the door opened, but as he glanced inside, he froze in place.

Below, the others already had weapons in hand, and Fang Hong also summoned the Energy Angel, letting this cold female swordsman stand on one side, so if Little Fatty on the hatch was attacked, it could immediately counterattack and rescue him.

But when Fang Hong looked up and saw his expression, he couldn’t help but ask, ”What’s wrong?”

Wu Xiaopang swallowed a mouthful of saliva, with a ghost-stricken expression: ”B-boss, you’d better come see...it’s a Construct...”

”Construct?”

Fang Hong had anticipated both a combat scenario or not, but didn’t expect an unforeseen situation.

However, he nodded, exchanged places with Little Fatty coming down, and climbed up the ladder as well. He held the door to take a look inside, and the next moment he was stunned there.

Behind the door was pitch black, seemingly an artificially constructed square hall, but this warehouse-like building wasn’t like imagined, filled with large and small boxes, barrels, and other supplies. Immersed in darkness, there was only row upon row of head-hanging, unactivated Constructs.

Fang Hong first looked to the left, where humanoid Constructs with four legs and arms crossed together stood, roughly over eight feet high, taller than an average person by half a body.

Seeing the style of these Constructs, he was already surprised and glanced around the darkness, finding seemingly no one present, so he boldly pushed open the door, leapt up, and walked beside these Constructs, gently brushing his hand across their chests.

Sure enough, beneath the dust appeared a nameplate.

’E, Slvy, 074-091.’

This indicates ’seven’ in the Osh language, E means military use of the Imperial Faction, and the numbers are serial numbers—this line of text means Imperial Workshop No. 7, products numbered 074-091.

Fang Hong drew in a sharp breath; these Constructs were neither puppet guards nor Golem Statues, but military-grade Flexible Constructs—

He wiped his hand across each one, and indeed, each Construct had such a nameplate, only the numbers were slightly different, but all beginning with 074, which made Fang Hong realize that these were the same batch of products.

But why were there so many military-standard Constructs here?

And all from the same batch?

In fact, only the Osh Empire has combat artisans belonging to the military—which, during various conflicts, Colin Ishurian also had combat artisans participating, but they mostly did so personally, not in a systemized manner.

Whereas the Osh Empire has a dedicated craftsman brigade, with Alchemists from the brigade and craftsmen born of the guild forming two systems, and using exclusively imperial military-standard Constructs.

For instance, this line to his left is a type of Flexible Construct called ’Sweeper,’ a representative of military-standard Constructs further strengthened from the Walker by the Imperial Workshop.

And like military Constructs and the Magic Guided Reactor, both pursue reliability. Military Constructs might not have superior attributes compared to Variant Constructs of the same level, but their reliability and protection in extreme environments far surpass the latter.

Looking at these things, lines of familiar data surfaced involuntarily in his mind.

Sweeper, Level 18 military Construct, weighs half a ton, Strength Rating B+, Agility Rating B, Protection B+, Auxiliary Performance D, effective life of 1600 points with no extra equipment, main weapon is the Imperial Spear standard Magic Guided Long Spear, and an Mk-7 rotating cannon.

Before heading to Eteliria, he had always been very interested in combat artisans, naturally knowledgeable about these famous Constructs.

This attribute is neck and neck with his Energy Angel—though the latter excels in agility and auxiliary, it falls short in strength and protection. In terms of attack, both have their strong points: Energy Angel has the advantage in attack frequency, but when it comes to breaking protection in hand-to-hand combat, it naturally cannot compare to the Imperial Spear standard Heavy Long Spear.

Moreover, the Energy Angel is nearly a Level 19 Construct, its cost-benefit ratio cannot but be low, and comparing durably and dependably, the Sweeper far excels.

However, the Sweeper is an older model military Construct of the Imperial Army, and in today’s context, it’s considered obsolete; finding them in a smuggler’s warehouse could still be understood.

But this batch of Constructs behind him was a bit excessive—

Mares Knight, Level 20 military Construct, weighs 0.7 tons, Strength Rating B+, Agility Rating C, Protection Performance A, Auxiliary Performance D, effective life unknown without extra equipment, mainly equipped with an alloy heavy shield and a 40mm shoulder-mount cannon.

This was more severe, and if Fang Hong remembers correctly, this is the Imperial Army’s active military Construct, not for sale. But as he looked back, he only saw these inactive tall centaur-like Constructs, stacked together, extending to the far end of the darkness.