There was one good news — and one bad news.
The good news was: this group of mechanical guards could, in fact, be controlled.
The bad news: the souls within their metal bodies were far more complete than those of the mechanical spiders.
In other words, the [Blood Familiar] trait no longer worked — controlling them would require the higher-tier [Blood Servant] trait instead.
And of course, as always, when there's one good and one bad piece of news, there's inevitably a third.
Just like how the Four Heavenly Kings somehow always end up with a fifth member.
Fortunately, the third news was also good.
Hel wasn't short on [Blood Servant] traits. They were fairly easy to obtain, after all — and at the moment, she had around four thousand of them. Not too many, she thought casually.
Even if she used up a few thousand to enslave every mechanical guard in this entire ruin… it should still be enough.
Probably.
She didn't actually know how many more guards were hiding deeper inside.
Not that she had time to worry about that — because right now, they had run into a slight problem.
To put it simply, they were stuck.
Or rather, trapped outside by the massive door before them.
Hel's real body had already arrived, accompanied by Arwin and Sebas, who had just rushed over from Heim City.
"Young Master, this door appears to be made entirely of Aurum Gold."
After examining it for quite some time, old Sebas finally turned back to report.
"Aurum Gold?"
"Yes, Young Master. Aurum Gold, Mithril, Red Copper, and Refined Steel — these are the four most common materials used in modern equipment crafting.
Mid- to high-level knights typically use red copper gear.
Sky and Earth Knights usually prefer mithril.
As for Aurum Gold equipment — that's reserved for Royal Knights and above.
Even among them, it's rare for anyone to possess a full set of Aurum gear.
So to imagine that the master of this ruin spent so much Aurum just to forge a single door… that's beyond extravagant."
Sebas couldn't help sighing at the goblins' sheer opulence as the golden surface reflected in his weary eyes.
"So, can it be opened?"
Hel asked as she knocked lightly on the door, frowning at the hardness of the metal.
"I'm afraid not, Young Master. Aurum Gold is exceptionally tough — unless we use a legendary Sacred Flame or a Holy-tier forbidden spell, it can't be broken."
"So brute force is out of the question, huh."
"Precisely. From the looks of it, we'll need a key."
Sebas pointed toward a groove in the door and continued:
"There was once a rumor — the first adventurers who discovered the Goblin Ruins in the Windmill Kingdom did so by finding a 'Relic Gem' key first. It supposedly guided them to the ruin itself."
"So, in other words," Hel said dryly, "we skipped all the early adventure and went straight to the final treasure vault?"
"That's exactly it."
And right at that moment, a heavy boom echoed from nearby.
Hel turned — and saw Arwin, holding his knight's spear, stabbing it furiously not at the golden door, but at the wall beside it.
Even with the full strength of an Earth Knight, enhanced by multiple combat traits — a blow powerful enough to rival a Sky Knight's — all it managed to do was knock off a layer of stone dust.
As the dust crumbled away, it revealed the black, ink-like surface beneath.
When Arwin withdrew his spear, there was only a faint white scratch left on the dark material.
"My apologies, Lord Hel," Arwin said, embarrassed. "I figured if the door's made of Aurum, the walls might not be as expensive. Turns out there's another layer behind it."
Sebas knelt to examine it.
"That's Basalt Alchemite Brick — an alchemical construction material. I saw it before during my time at the Watchwall Fortress.
The entire fortress was built with this stuff. It's said that only Holy-tier powerhouses can destroy it."
"Only Holy-tier can break it? Now that's what I call a luxury project."
Hel didn't blame Arwin. Truth be told, she'd been thinking the same thing — that the wall might be weaker than the door.
Now that Arwin had done the test for her, at least she didn't have to embarrass herself.
"Seems like there's only one option left."
Hel pressed her hand against the golden door and tried [Appraisal].
As expected, it failed.
That meant she couldn't extract its traits directly.
It made sense, really — the door and the surrounding wall were forged as one structure.
Her system recognized "inanimate objects" only as independent entities.
Otherwise, she could just cast [Appraisal] on the ground, extract the planet's traits, and become a god on the spot.
So if she wanted to extract from this door, she first needed to mentally separate it from the wall — a delicate task requiring pure spiritual control.
The problem was, the door was covered in defensive magical inscriptions, heavily interfering with her spiritual reach.
In short — it hated her.
Still, she had no choice.
If they didn't open this door, this expedition would end here.
The gains so far were decent, but not nearly enough.
So… what else could she do?
Force it.
If her spiritual power was a key, then this door was a cute, stubborn little girl who absolutely refused to open up — which only made Hel more determined to pry it open.
And so began the struggle: Hel vs. Door.
It took an entire day, but she finally succeeded in reading the door's properties.
[Name]: Aurum Mechanism Gate
[Rank]: Gold · Legendary
[Traits]: Magic Reflection Inscription (Gold), Damage Absorption Inscription (Gold), Auto-Recovery Inscription (Gold)
[Description]: A gate troublesome even to Holy-tier powerhouses.
Troublesome indeed. A tsundere door through and through.
With a flick of her wrist, Hel claimed all three golden traits.
Then she waited.
Moments later, a fourth golden trait appeared — [Aurum (Gold)].
No hesitation. She extracted it as well.
As the trait vanished, the once-radiant door suddenly lost all its color, crumbling into countless ashen embers.
The embers were fine as flour — and the door itself had stood ten meters tall.
Imagine a cargo container filled with powder being dumped from midair — cascading like a storm, slamming into the ground, and erupting into a massive cloud of dust.
That was what it looked like.
The air turned thick with swirling gray ash, burying the entire entrance and plaza beneath it.
When the dust finally settled, it revealed a crowd of undead figures coated in a thin layer of shimmering residue.
As for Hel?
She'd already sensed what was coming and ordered Arwin to pull her back before the collapse began.
Sebas, however, wasn't so lucky — caught mid-step, he ended up covered head to toe, looking like a miner who'd just crawled out of a coal pit.
The good news: they were all undead.
No need to breathe — so at least they didn't have to worry about inhaling secondhand ash.