Gacha Harem System

Chapter 223: Shifting Streets

They turned to Karrakas. "So, where to?"

But before the guide could answer, a deep rumbling sound filled the air without warning.

It began as a vibration beneath their feet, the sound low and deep as it moved within their chest and through their whole body, setting their teeth clacking against the other.

Then the noise arrived as a massive, mechanical groan, the sound of stone moving against stone on a scale that had no business existing underground.

Lukas peeked out the window to see the street outside was shifting.

Unlike what one would expect, the streets were not crumbling or collapsing. Not a single crack or speck of dust was seen.

Instead, the buildings along the road were sliding sideways in slow increments, their foundations grinding against the floor of the cavern as something beneath the city rearranged its pieces as if it was a sliding puzzle.

Lukas commanded the Automatons under his control to move closer to their building, pressing themselves against the wall as the streets rearranged itself.

Across the junction, an entire block rotated a quarter turn, its walls and windows and lamp posts turning as one solid unit, the stone paving beneath it moving with it.

Akira braced herself against the wall as the building they were standing in shuddered once, then eased into a slow lateral movement, carrying them with it.

Melody grabbed the window frame.

Karrakas pressed his back to the wall and closed his eyes, his lips moving slightly, clearly trying to track the direction of their movement against whatever internal map he’d been building.

The grinding continued for several long seconds, before the rumbling gradually lessened, then stopped.

Lukas looked out the window again to see that the street was gone. The road that had run in front of the building had been replaced by a junction. They were now in a T intersection opening in three directions, with their building now sitting at its head.

Everything looked normal, and yet everything had changed.

"We still have all eight," Akira said, counting the Automatons outside.

They stepped out of the building and into the junction.

Karrakas checked the three available directions, spent a few seconds comparing them against whatever was left of his internal map, and pointed to the left. "I think this route has more promise."

"You think?" Melody asked with a frown.

"That’s better than nothing, isn’t it?" Karrakas shrugged.

They had no reply to that, so they had no choice but to move.

The street they entered was longer than the one before it, and the buildings on either side somehow seemed taller than before.

Maybe it merely seemed that way because the gears built into the walls looked larger and moved more slowly. freeweɓnovel.cøm

The streetlamps here were spaced further apart, leaving longer stretches of darkness between each lamp.

They’d covered a third of the street when the sound of ticking reached them.

It was another patrol of six D-rank Automatons moving in two rows of three, their glass eyes catching the light as they turned towards the group.

Lukas immediately commanded his Automatons to attack.

They moved forward without hesitation and the fight that followed was not elegant, but they did the job. Lukas’ Automatons not only had the height advantage, but they knew where to hit to kill their opponents in one strike.

[You have killed a D-rank Clockwork Automaton (x6)]

Akira was already stepping forward before the last one hit the ground.

She raised her hand. "[Resurrect]."

The six bodies stirred, shuddered, and pulled themselves upright one after another, joining the formation behind Lukas’s eight.

They now had fourteen Automatons in total.

"I’m starting to feel like a Captain again," Akira said, a grin on her face.

Melody looked at the fourteen undead Automatons, then at Akira, then at her own sword.

"I want [Resurrect] too," she said.

"You should have thought about that before choosing your skills," Akira said pleasantly.

"We both know I didn’t choose my skills. They came with my class."

"Then you should have chosen a better class."

"My class gave me [Cursed Blade] and [Hex Shield], which have kept us alive multiple times."

"And yet." Akira gestured at the fourteen Automatons. "No army."

Melody pointed her sword at her. "I will get a [Resurrect] skill one day, and then we’ll have this conversation again."

"I look forward to it," Akira said, her grin widening.

Lukas said nothing. He was already walking.

They spent the next several hours moving through the streets in the same pattern. They advance from building to building, encounter Automatons, engage them, resurrect them, and advance again.

The Undercity shifted twice more while they moved, the grinding and rearranging becoming almost familiar by the second occurrence.

Karrakas tracked landmarks when he could find them, noting a particularly unique looking gear fixed to a wall that he said meant they were moving in broadly the right direction.

Their Automaton force grew with each engagement.

By the time Karrakas indicated for them to rest, they had accumulated thirty undead Automatons.

"Here," Karrakas said, stopping in front of a building larger than the ones they’d been using for cover. He pushed the door open and checked the interior. "We should rest here for a few hours."

They filed inside while Lukas directed the Automatons to position themselves at the entrance and along the street, then pulled the door shut.

They retrieved their rations from their spatial rings as they began sitting on the floor in a loose circle.

Melody ate without complaint, while Akira stretched her legs out, massaging her legs. As for Lukas, he checked his mana, knowing he was responsible for controlling a bulk of their resurrected forces. But he still had more than enough to spare.

Karrakas moved to the window partway through the meal, looking out at the street. His posture had been relaxed, then he suddenly froze.

Lukas looked up. "What is it?"

Karrakas didn’t answer immediately. He kept his eyes on the street outside, his expression doing something that Lukas had not seen on the man’s face before.

Concern. Genuine concern.

"Something is very wrong," Karrakas said quietly.