My Infinite Investment System

Chapter 71: Ruins Race I

The patron’s ace had a four-hour lead, a lawful emergency exemption, and a beacon descending six levels beneath the exposed arch.

’That was a terrible amount of advantage to give someone with a private army,’ Ryan thought, folding the survey sheet, ’but at least the beacon was honest about it.’

Mika adjusted the straps around her paired tonfas while blue-black water lapped at the first stair.

"If the chamber prefers the people already inside it," she said, checking the drainage channel, "our retreat plan needs more than a hopeful arrow."

Grace crouched beside a maintenance plate with three faded claimant marks.

"The core is a balancing station, not a vault," she said, running a finger over the old route record, "and the water rose after the ace crossed the lower shelf."

Nia kept the remaining hunters at the surface corridor with the retreat open behind them.

Ryan entered with Mika, Grace, Dara, and four recruits who had survived enough drills to dislike surprises on principle.

The central vault was loading old mana rails beneath the water, so Grace crossed it from the route map before anyone got sentimental about the obvious entrance.

"The service channel will move more slowly," she said, pointing to a mineral-covered opening, "but it has less protection and more maintenance authority."

"That is a price we can understand," Ryan replied, "which already puts it ahead of the vault."

The ruin answered with a grinding shift that pushed water across the landing.

Mika caught a recruit by the collar before his boot slid into the shaft.

"Nobody steps where the floor has not agreed to hold them," she said, setting him upright, "you can be brave after the geology stops trying to collect you."

They moved in single file through the service channel while wall lines registered boots, weapons, and Grace’s temporary passage number.

Claim answered through two dormant braces, yet it stopped at the channel’s broken joint before it could touch the flooded shaft.

"Two braces recognize the route," Ryan said, keeping his hand on the spear, "three are damaged, and the rest refuses us."

"Then the station is granting passage rather than ownership," Grace replied, checking the console text, "which means those damaged braces are our legal anchors."

Dara opened her portable case while the recruits formed a shield around the valve bank.

"I can restore three valves," she said, lifting a corroded fitting, "but the casings were struck from inside, so every repair tells the ruin where we are."

"Make the noise useful," Ryan said, bracing the spear across the corridor, "we are already late, and quiet will not refund four hours."

Mika held one tonfa toward the waterline while listening for the next rail shift.

"That was not a rail shifting," she said, motioning the recruits into staggered positions, "so nobody fires until we know where it is going."

The first creature climbed out on hooked limbs, its shell threaded with old copper wire and a filtration tag hanging from its mouth.

Combat Valuation marked the wire as a pressure conductor rather than armor.

’Of course the monster came with wiring instructions,’ Ryan thought, watching the current gather, ’this place had become a plumbing dispute with teeth.’

He stepped left, invited the lunge, then hooked the spear behind the wire bundle.

Mika struck the conductor with one tonfa, sending stored charge through the shell into the drainage water.

The creature released the tag before it reached the recruit behind Ryan.

The recruit drove his spear through the exposed joint and left it collapsed in the channel.

"That was a colony scout," Grace said, lifting the burned tag with a cloth, "the overflow is feeding something that learned to use the filtration network."

The rear glyph flashed red before Dara reached the next valve.

Water rose around her boots as the door sealed behind them.

"Temporary passage is conditional," Grace said, pressing her copied authorization to the console, "the station wants proof that our repairs match the claimant record."

Ryan looked at the damaged valve, the beacon ahead, and the channel narrowing around them.

’I could make it remember a maintenance visit,’ he thought, lowering the spear tip, ’but it could remember a trespass after that.’

He drove the tip into the service brace and extended the shaft through the broken contact.

Claim spread across the two recognized braces in a thin strip that stopped before the sealed door.

The glyph changed from red to amber as the service brace accepted the repair.

"You made the station remember the repair," Grace said, watching the console settle, "do not make it remember anything worse."

"Keep the route narrow," Ryan replied, withdrawing the spear, "then tell me when the records stop agreeing with our feet."

The third valve groaned under Dara’s wrench as a shockwave shook loose a rail hidden beneath the water.

A junior member slid toward the opening before anyone could reach him.

Mika spent her first safe Lightning Step in a clean burst that carried her across the gap without touching the unstable rail.

She caught the harness, landed on a maintenance shelf, and pulled the recruit toward solid stone while the rest secured a line.

"Do not make me spend another step saving the same mistake," she said, checking his face before she released the harness, "I am trying to save my budget for monsters."

The third valve closed, and the pressure fell by one measured division.

Clear water exposed an ornate crown regulator beneath the machinery.

The ace’s beacon blinked beyond the chamber, only eleven seconds ahead now, while another signal moved below it in a pattern Grace did not recognize.

The patron’s ace stood at the far end with a junior member and two armored escorts.

One hand held the crown regulator while the other kept a blade close to the junior’s shoulder.

"You arrived sooner than the exemption predicted," she said, watching the brace lights, "which means the route changed because of you."

"It changed because your team damaged the station," Grace replied, raising her camera, "release the regulator, and the record can show a repair instead of a theft."

The ace removed the regulator’s outer crown and revealed three claimant colors beneath the housing.

"Dara’s translation was incomplete," she said, holding the device away from the water, "this balances filtration for three recognized parties, and the third is below us."

The floor opened beneath the machinery before Ryan could ask who that party was.

Water rose in a rotating wall around the regulator, lifting loose copper tags above the platform while the guardian drew roots through the current as though testing every escape route the teams might use.

[Unauthorized parties: three]

[Liquidation order: active]

[Third living presence: below filtration machinery]

Pipes, shell plates, and pale roots assembled inside the flood until they formed a guardian around the crown.

Ryan lowered his spear toward the thing wearing the ruin’s maintenance frame.

"Nobody attacks the crown," he said, watching the roots find the braces, "nobody crosses the flood line, and Grace finds the part that still believes this station has an owner."

The guardian opened a face without eyes, then angled its pipework toward the crown regulator until the old pressure gauges rattled against their brackets.

Three voices spoke through the water, each using a different register that made the chamber feel briefly crowded with unseen officials.

"Liquidation begins when the claimants disagree," they said.

The words traveled through the pipework with enough patience to make the threat feel procedural.

Grace checked the three claimant colors on the regulator, then lowered her camera long enough to mark their positions on the map.

"It is assigning every living person a share of the dispute," she said, returning the lens to the guardian, "which means it will treat any unilateral move as proof against us."

The ace studied the map rather than Ryan, her lowered blade tracking the routes Grace had marked in waterproof ink.

"Then we get ninety seconds," she said, motioning her escorts toward the valves, "after that, we go back to being opponents with better evidence."

Ryan hated that the offer sounded reasonable because reasonable offers were usually how bad plans got signatures.

At the far end of the channel, the guardian’s root frame folded around a cracked pressure gauge while water carried scraps of claimant seals past the recruits, turning each failed repair into evidence that somebody would later try to own.

One armored escort checked the junior’s line, then repositioned his shield to cover the valve bank despite the ace’s order to keep distance from Seven-B.

The guardian kept every root near the crown, but its pipe limbs shifted whenever Dara tightened a fitting, which gave Ryan a small and thoroughly untrustworthy opening to watch.

’Ninety seconds was not trust,’ Ryan thought, watching the flood climb around the braces, ’but it was enough time to find out whether the ruin wanted everyone dead equally.’

’Great, the dungeon had appointed itself a mediator,’ Ryan thought, tightening his grip, ’and its preferred remedy appeared to be murder.’