Chapter 152 - To Press The Button Or Not?

Liam slowly stepped out of the spot he was hiding with his [Stealth] skill activated. He did not directly barge into the valley and only tip-toed on the outskirts.

He continued doing this for several minutes and then came to a stop at the opposite mountain.

"Hmmm. As long as I manage to stay away from the gnomes and maintain my stealth, I should be ok."

Liam wanted to first confirm this assumption before proceeding with the rest of his plan. This venture was already risky but more importantly, there was another issue.

He was not sure how legitimate the information he obtained about this spot was. 

In his previous life, one of the mid-sized guilds had stumbled into this area and had obtained the item that he was pursuing now.

In addition, they had used this lucky discovery to improve their strength and boasted about it everywhere, publicizing it on all the forums.

It was a very hot topic. 

They had talked about everything including location, the difficulties, and the clever strategy they had used, without any reservations.

They gave out all the details left and right. Of course, this was partially because they had already looted and plundered the place without leaving behind any scraps.

But Liam doubted if it was that simple. Perhaps there was something that they did not share openly, like for example any losses they had run into and so on.

So he decided to keep an eye open for any sudden unexpected surprises.

Liam did a few rounds, walking around the area while being careful not to step into the range. 

He observed the settlement and everything seemed to match the details of what he had read about.

There were two caves one at each mountain base and the gnomes were walking about between these two places, actively carrying what looked like mineral ores.

They were also carrying other tools, what looked like machine parts, and some other rock debris. The more Liam looked at it, the more he felt as if they were building something.

But he didn't quite care about that. The item that he wanted should be inside the cave on the north.

However, before getting there he needed to cross this humongous obstacle in front of him, the hundreds and hundreds of small mechanical gnomes loitering about tirelessly.

Liam already had a strategy to deal with them but he did not act yet.

He waited and observed the gnomes for some more time. 

Time slowly ticked by and the behaviour of the gnomes did not change much.

"Should I just give up and try it out?" Even Liam began to lose his patience and contemplated simply trusting the information put out by the guild.

But he immediately shook his head, rejecting that idea. "It's fine if it takes longer. I should not rush here."

He continued keeping up his [Stealth] skill and leaned on the rock to watch the action of the robotic gnomes.

They were made of metal so they didn't seem to need any breaks or rest and simply kept robotically doing the same thing over and over again.

However, every other hour a bigger gnome robot showed up, making sure that everything was running smoothly. This was the Gnome Overseer.

Other than the normal gnomes, and the Gnome Overseer, there was also one other gnome which was the Sentinel Gnome.

This looked taller and had a red light on its head. Whenever this robot came out, Liam acted on instinct and took a few steps back.

Just judging from the name, he had a strong feeling that perhaps this gnome's zone of detection was bigger.

Liam had now almost spent a total of 12 hours in this endeavour and this seemed to be the only gnomes wandering around.

"So there is no pattern whatsoever. Maybe there is really no other choice but to face everything?" He prepared to act, but decided to wait for one more hour.

Coincidentally, in the 13th hour, the number of gnomes in the valley suddenly reduced to just 5. 

The robots that were walking around like ants in a queue had all disappeared or rather gone into their respective caves and only 5 small gnomes came out holding some sort of boxes.

Liam instantly became alert and jumped into action. He did not hesitate any longer as this could be the best chance to try out the strategy.

He lifted his hand and aimed for the gnome closest to him. He then activated [Lightning Bolt].

Liam did not mess around and directly used the system's help in activating this spell. 

This was because even though the gnomes were small, and they were lifeless brainless bots, they were quite difficult to deal with.

Why?

Exactly because they were lifeless and brainless.

The gnomes attacked using inbuilt gun machinations which had extremely high firepower, precision and speed.

But more importantly, they had a self-destruction mechanism.

Even if Liam somehow dodged their extremely high powered precision bullets, he still had to deal with the huge explosion that could occur at any instant as the gnome propelled itself to him.

And this was just a single gnome.

If Liam by mistake got caught in the cluster of gnomes, five or more might immediately propel themselves to him and commit suicide, thereby taking his life also along with theirs.

These gnomes did not know the concept of 'Overkill', they were simply designed to do whatever it took to protect the base.

At least this was the information Liam had in his possession and he did not doubt this part as there had even been videos of this fight.

So how to overcome this impossible situation?

The answer was in the red button on their stomach. 

It was a small bead like button and one wouldn't be able to see it if they did not know something like that existed beforehand.

Liam as well was currently eying this button. "This should be it."

If he could target this button with his lightning bolt then the mechanical gnome would go into a dazed condition for 15 minutes!

This was the strategy that the guild had publicized, but would it really work?