I pressed my palms against the glowing steel doors. The metal thrummed under my fingers with tension, as if a giant reactor was working behind it.
— "Go back a couple of steps, Prophet," — I threw over my shoulder to Takemichi.
— "If flames burst out of there, your plastic helmet will melt right into your boots."
The blond swallowed convulsively, hugged his clinking bag—which now weighed almost more than he did—to his chest, and obediently crawled behind a nearby pile of twisted scrap metal.
I poured some of my Strength points into my hands, tensed my muscles, and pushed the gates with a low, guttural growl.
The hinges, rusted decades ago, gave way with a deafening screech. The doors slowly slid apart.
A wave of suffocating, dry heat immediately hit my face. The air here was so thick it felt as if it could be cut with a knife.
The smell of burnt coal, molten iron, and ozone hit my senses.
We stepped (well, Takemichi crawled in on all fours) into a giant circular hall. This was the heart of the old depot.
In the center of the hall, on a locomotive turntable, rose a mountain of twisted metal shrouded in thick black smoke.
Suddenly, the smoke began to move. The mountain of metal shuddered, and jets of superheated steam hissed out of it.
— "Oh, mama..." — Takemichi squeaked from behind my back. — "Satoru, tell me this is just a decoration..."
Two red searchlights ignited in the darkness, cutting through the smoke, and stared directly at us.
[ ATTENTION! Dungeon Boss Detected! ]
[ Target: Goliath of the Forge (Class: Cyber-Mutant Rank: C+) ]
[ Feature: Colossal physical defense (Armor 85%). Vulnerability to water and ice magic. ]
[ Error: Magical attacks are blocked due to Host depletion. Good luck piercing tank armor with your fists. ]
— "'Vulnerability to ice magic'? Thanks, System, very timely," — I chuckled, stretching my neck.
— "How about I just twist its head off?"
The boss stood up with a crash, shaking off chunks of concrete and old rails.
It was a four-meter monster assembled from parts of old trains and coarse, mutated flesh.
Its chest was the firebox of a steam locomotive, inside which roared a dazzlingly bright, white-hot flame.
The left arm ended in a massive hydraulic hammer the size of a small car, and the right... there simply was no right arm; instead, a cluster of sparking wires resembling tentacles protruded from the shoulder.
The Goliath of the Forge made a sound like a steam whistle and took its first step. The ground literally jumped beneath our feet.
— "Takemichi!" — I barked, keeping my [Six Eyes] fixed on the monster. — "Stay quiet and stay out of sight!"
— "I won't be able to cover you with a barrier!"
— "I-I got it!" — he shouted, burying himself so deep in a pile of trash that only his yellow hard hat peeked out.
The monster didn't waste time on long preludes. Its hydraulic hammer sliced through the scorching air with a whistle.
I didn't even try to block. Taking a mass of several tons onto myself without mana reinforcement was a sure way to turn into a pancake.
My perception, accelerated by the Six Eyes, broke the Boss's movement down into frames.
I took a soft, sliding step to the side. The hammer crashed onto the concrete with a deafening thud exactly one centimeter from my boot.
The floor cracked, and stone fragments flew in all directions; one of them painfully grazed my cheek.
— "Too slow, you hunk of junk!" — I smirked, pushing off the ground.
The Agility points did their job. I soared into the air, landed directly on the massive lever of its hydraulic hammer, and using it as a springboard, lunged upward toward the ugly searchlight-face.
A mid-air spin. All the kinetic energy of my body, multiplied by my pumped Strength, went into a spinning back kick.
The heel of my boot slammed into the metal grate covering the creature's "face."
CRACK!
The sound of crumpling metal was music to my ears. The grate buckled inward, and one of the red searchlights burst, showering us in glass shards.
The Boss staggered, emitting a grinding shriek, but didn't fall.
The wire-tentacles on its right arm darted toward me like a swarm of metallic snakes.
I went into a tight backflip, landing on one knee five meters away from it. My breathing was slightly labored.
— "The armor is actually decent" — I noted, looking at the monster's slightly dented but intact head.
— "If I hit a goblin like that, he'd have flown into orbit."
[ Sync System:Hint. Aim for the core (firebox), Host. The face is just a cooling radiator. You just broke its air conditioner.]
«I know where its battery is without your help!» — I snapped back mentally.
The problem was that the firebox was closed by thick cast-iron shutters that only opened when the monster released steam.
The Goliath roared. Inside its chest, the flame flared up with new intensity.
The cast-iron shutters ground open, and a directed jet of superheated steam mixed with glowing slag blasted from the firebox straight at me.
— "Oh, hell!" — I dove to the side, rolling behind a concrete pillar.
The jet of steam hit the pillar, instantly melting the concrete. The temperature was so high that the hair on the back of my head sizzled slightly.
If that junk had hit the exclusive jacket from Marin, I would have had to file for disability not from monsters, but from her scissors.
— "Satoru!! It's burning everything!" — Takemichi wailed panic-stricken from his hiding place.
— "Then we need to make it choke!" — I yelled back.
A plan formed instantly. I peeked out from behind cover. The Goliath was slowly turning toward me, preparing for a new volley.
Its shutters were still open.
I scanned the floor. A meter away from me lay a thick, pointed piece of rail about two meters long, torn out during the Boss's first attack.
It weighed at least two hundred kilograms.
I grabbed the rail with both hands. My muscles howled under the strain, but the Strength points didn't fail me—I tore it off the ground, balancing it like a spear.
— "Hey, Thomas the Tank Engine!" — I shouted, stepping out from cover. — "Catch a coal!"
The monster turned toward my voice. A white flame began to flare up in its firebox again.
I didn't wait. Taking two quick steps to build momentum, I put every ounce of my physical power into the throw.
The rail hissed through the air, flew ten meters, and with surgical precision (thanks to the spatial perception of the Six Eyes) plunged straight into the Goliath's open firebox, piercing the glowing core through and through.
BOOOOM!
The explosion was so powerful that the shockwave threw me back several meters.
I slid on my back across the concrete dust, narrowly avoiding breaking my ribs.
The internal pressure inside the Boss, unable to find an exit because of the stuck rail, tore its chest cavity apart from the inside.
Pieces of armor, gears, and pistons rained down onto the hall floor.
The Goliath of the Forge's massive body froze, emitting a long, dying screech, and collapsed to its knees—then face-first into the concrete.
The light in the remaining searchlight went out.
[ TARGET DESTROYED! ]
[ Killed: Goliath of the Forge (C+rank Boss) ]
[ Issued: 1500 System Coins (Ring Effect: +750 Coins) ]
[ Level Up! Current Level: 20 ]
[ Available Stat Points: 10 ]
I lay on my back, staring at the soot-covered ceiling and breathing heavily.
My chest heaved and my lungs burned from the dry air, but a satisfied smirk played on my lips.
— "Who... who's the man?" — I wheezed to myself. — "I am. No magic. Just stats.".
— "I could use some water though...".
— "S-Satoru!" — Takemichi leaped out of his hiding place, his bag rattling, and ran up to me.
He looked in horror at the scorched patch left by the Boss, then at me.
— "You... you killed a C-rank Boss... with a piece of rail?! Like a Spartan?!".
— "I prefer to call it 'tactical use of the environment,'" — I groaned, sitting up and brushing off my jacket.
Surprisingly, the jacket was intact, only slightly stained with soot. Marin is a genius.
I approached the smoking remains of the Boss. Three glowing loot spheres hung in the air directly above them: gold, blue, and purple.
— "Jackpot," — I muttered, feeling my fatigue instantly evaporate. Greedy gamer syndrome had triumphed over common sense.
I reached out and touched the spheres.
[ Loot obtained: ]
1.Core of the Forge(High Quality) — A powerful energy source.
2.Stat Reset Ticket(Rare) — Allows redistribution of all invested stat points.
"Mechanic's Shadow" Cloak(Epic) — Grants a passive stealth effect and protection from scanning. Increases Agility by +5.
I whistled. The reset ticket was "broken" for the future, but the cloak... The cloak was simply a gift of fate.
A thick, charcoal-black fabric materialized in my hands. The cloak was as light as silk but felt stronger than Kevlar to the touch.
— "Fits the wardrobe perfectly," — I draped the cloak over my shoulders on top of my jacket.
It fit my frame perfectly without restricting movement and immediately began to blend slightly into the shadows of the dungeon.
At that moment, the rumble in the tunnels behind us fell silent. The huge purple haze of the portal pulsating at the end of the hall suddenly rippled and changed color to a serene blue.
The Gate was cleared.
Takemichi collapsed to his knees, throwing his hands toward the ceiling. — "Blue! It's blue! We survived! We're going home! Hinata, I'm alive!!".
— "Too early to celebrate," — I adjusted the collar of my new cloak and stared coldly at the blue glow of the exit.
The Six Eyes, even without active mana, picked up what was happening on the other side. — "Our exit from here will be a bit... noisy.".
Before stepping into the serene blue haze of the cleared portal, I stopped.
I needed to understand exactly what I was walking out with to face an entire army.
«System, status» — I commanded mentally.
A golden interface unfolded before my eyes. Three cleared dungeons in a row, including two C-ranks and one C+ Boss, had borne fruit.
[ Name: Satoru Gojo(Synchronization: 75%) ]
[ Hunter Level: 22 ]
[ Class: Anomaly (S-rank) ]
[ Available stat points: 0 (All invested in Strength and Agility) ]
[ Mana state: 0.5% (CRITICAL LEAK) ]
[ Status: Magic techniques FORCIBLY BLOCKED ]
Level 22. For a rookie who registered a couple of days ago, this was an absolute, unthinkable record that broke all the laws of the Association.
But those flashing red lines about mana and the block spoiled my mood a bit.
I smirked, swiping away the status window, adjusted the collar of my new epic cloak, and stepped into the light.
The plaza in front of the entrance to the old Roppongi metro resembled a movie set for martial law.
Hundreds of armed Hunter Association fighters stood frozen behind mobile steel barricades.
Snipers on the roofs of elite boutiques held their breath, pressed against the optical sights of high-caliber rifles.
The first line of battle mages raised their staffs, weaving a complex web of anti-magic barriers and paralyzing nets that hummed with tension in the air.
Thirty heavy mana scanners rotated on the roofs of black vans, combing through every cubic centimeter of space.
In the command center, Curator Kuroda squeezed the microphone of the loudspeaker in his hand. His knuckles turned white.
— "The Gate changed color," — the operator reported in a trembling voice. — "C-rank is officially cleared. The target is exiting.".
The blue-purple haze of the portal that had torn through the tunnel asphalt rippled heavily and changed to a steady blue light. The silence on the plaza became deafening.
The first thing the Association's army saw was me. The black blindfold still rested over my eyes.
The charcoal-black, matte fabric of the "Mechanic's Shadow" cloak seemed to absorb the light of the police sirens, making my figure look blurred and threatening.
Stumbling after me and loudly rattling his huge bag, Takemichi tumbled out.
In his yellow hard hat and carrying a goblin cleaver, he looked so ridiculous against the backdrop of the army that it resembled a surreal comedy.
— "Attention, scanners!" — Kuroda barked into the microphone. — "Give me his signature! Threat level!".
— "Sir..." — the operator at the monitor turned pale. — "Zero! He has no signature! The radars show emptiness!".
The curator grabbed the loudspeaker's megaphone. His voice, amplified by the speakers, thundered over Roppongi Plaza.
— "UNKNOWN HUNTER! YOU ARE SURROUNDED BY ASSOCIATION FORCES! DROP YOUR WEAPON AND SURRENDER, OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE TO KILL!".
I stood at the exit of the tunnel, hands tucked into my pants pockets. A cool night breeze ruffled the hem of my cloak.
The Six Eyes instantly read the disposition. Thirty mages. Half a hundred fighters with firearms. Twelve snipers with armor-piercing darts.
I could try to dodge all of this on pure Agility. But Takemichi?
He would be turned into a sieve in a fraction of a second. There was no choice. I would have to break the rules.
— "Stay exactly behind my back, Prophet," — I said quietly. — "Don't fall behind.".
I took my first step forward.
— "HE IS MOVING! MAGES, BINDING CHAINS! SNIPERS, FIRE!" — the commander of the forward squad broke into a scream.
Twelve high-caliber rifles fired simultaneously. Four A-rank mages struck their staffs against the ground, releasing thick, gold-shimmering magical chains.
Time slowed down for me.
«System» — I commanded mentally, cold and with absolute authority. — «Lift the technique block.».
[ DENIED. Mana: 0.5%. Risk of total destruction of the Host's mana channels... ]
«I wasn't asking for permission. I am the Strongest. Lift. The block»
My will, backed by the soul of Satoru Gojo, struck the system limitations like a sledgehammer against glass. The space around me trembled.
A dazzling, stabbing pain flared in my chest, as if boiling lead had been poured into my veins.
The last scraps of mana—that same pathetic 0.5% the System was trying to save—ignited inside me like a supernova.
[ ATTENTION! FORCED ACTIVATION! Channel integrity falling: 11%... 10%... 9%... ]
A wide, crazed smirk spread across my lips. A thin stream of blood flowed from my nose, hidden by the blindfold and shadow, but I paid it no mind.
— "Infinity," — I whispered.
The space within a two-meter radius of me distorted, thickening to a state of absolute absolute.
Clink. Clink. Clink.
Twelve armor-piercing darts, capable of piercing tank armor, froze in the air exactly ten centimeters from my face, my cloak, and the trembling Takemichi behind me.
They simply stopped, losing all kinetic energy, and fell to the asphalt with a pathetic thud.
The golden magic chains, which had darted toward my hands like snakes, slammed into the invisible barrier. The spatial anomaly of Infinity simply twisted their magical structure.
With a deafening crack, the chains shattered into thousands of golden shards, blinding the first-line mages.
— "What... what is this?!" — one of the mages cried out, falling to his knees.
— "My mana... it simply disappeared upon contact!".
— "Sir!" — in the command van, the operator tore off his headphones in a panic. — "The scanners! They've gone crazy!".
The radar screens, which a second ago showed zero, suddenly flashed a blinding red.
The mana density numbers soared to such values that the equipment began to smoke.
And then, with a loud pop, thirty mana scanners on the roofs of the vans exploded simultaneously, showering the plaza with bursts of sparks.
I continued to walk. My gait was lazy, bored, and lethally calm.
Inside me, everything burned with the hellish flame of collapsing channels, but on the outside, I was the embodiment of divine superiority.
Takemichi scurried behind me like he was tied to me, even forgetting to breathe.
The crowd of elite fighters in front of us parted in horror. They dropped their shields and backed away. No one tried to pull a trigger anymore.
They physically felt the pressure of my aura—the distorted, reality-breaking space.
I drew level with the armored command post van. The tinted glass slowly lowered, and I saw the pale, sweaty face of Curator Kuroda.
His eyes were wide with primal terror.
I stopped. I turned my head toward him and, with one finger, slightly lifted the bottom edge of the black blindfold, allowing a bright blue eye, shining with unearthly light, to meet his gaze.
— "Your radars are acting up, old man," — I said lazily, with my signature mockery.
My voice sounded quiet, but in the silence hanging over the plaza, everyone heard it. — "And your snipers are cross-eyed.".
— "Tell your superiors to stop leaving their toys in the road. Or I might accidentally step on them and break them.".
I let go of the edge of the blindfold, allowing the thick fabric to return to its place, and lightly tapped the armored door of his van with one finger.
[Infinity] focused at the point of contact. The door, worth a million yen, buckled inward with a hideous screech, nearly crushing the curator.
— "Later, extras".
I shoved my hands deep into the pockets of my cloak and unhurriedly walked away, dissolving into the neon lights of night-time Roppongi.
The Hunter Association army stood in absolute silence. No one gave the order to shoot me in the back.
Tonight, I showed them what a real difference in power looks like.
But as soon as we turned the corner, away from the cameras, my perfect smile wavered, and a stifled, bloody cough escaped my mouth.
The System wasn't joking. I would have to pay a terrible price for this flex
Neon lights of Roppongi blurred before my eyes. As soon as we turned the corner of a multi-story parking garage, far from the drone cameras and the paralyzed Association army, my perfect, frightening aura of the Strongest crumbled like a house of cards.
I leaned my shoulder heavily against a cold brick wall and doubled over. A hoarse, gurgling sound escaped my throat, and I spat a clump of dark blood onto the asphalt.
It wasn't just burning in my chest; it felt as if someone had shoved a blender under my ribs and pressed the maximum speed button. The mana channels, which I had forcibly made to pass [Infinity] through them on an empty reserve, were now a scorched, sparking wasteland.
— "S-Satoru?!" — Takemichi dropped his heavy bag, making it clink deafeningly, and rushed over to me. His face under the yellow hard hat was whiter than chalk. — "Satoru, are you hurt?! Blood... where is the blood from?! We weren't even hit!"
— "Everything's... fine..." — I wheezed, wiping my chin with the back of my hand. — "Just... overdid it with the pathos."
I slowly slid down the wall, crouching, and closed my eyes.
«System. Shop. Section: Emergency Recovery,» — I commanded mentally. I needed a crutch. A hard, ultimate crutch to finish this night. We still had two dungeons planned, and I didn't intend to return home empty-handed.
[ Sync System: Analyzing Host's condition. Channel integrity: 8%. Risk of irreversible destruction of the Vessel. Recommendation: Immediate hospitalization in an intensive care unit. Or, as an alternative, you can lie on the asphalt, fold your hands on your chest, and stop breathing — that way you'll save time for the pathologists. ]
«Keep your sarcasm for the poor. Give me something that will put me back in line right now. I know you have VIP items for such cases,» — I snapped back.
[ Sync System: Congratulations, Host. You have successfully hit the bottom of the self-preservation instinct. Search completed. Forming an individual offer... ]
Only one position appeared on the translucent screen. It glowed with an enticing, golden-crimson light that smelled of ancient magic and big trouble.
[ Item: "Icarus's Credit" Elixir (Rank: A) ]
[ Description: The ultimate panacea for the suicidal. Instantly restores mana channels to a state of absolute perfection and removes all restrictions on reserve usage for 12 hours. You are a God in the flesh again. You can cast anything in any quantity. ]
[ Side effect: Everything comes with a price. After 12 hours, the current Sync Template (Satoru Gojo) will be FORCIBLY BLOCKED for exactly 3 weeks for an emergency soul reboot. You will become an ordinary human. Additionally, physical recoil of accumulated damage awaits you. ]
[ Cost: 2000 System Coins. ]
Two thousand coins. Pure overpricing that would eat up almost everything I farmed from the Boss in the "Rusty Depot". And three weeks without Gojo's powers? Three weeks without [Infinity] and the [Six Eyes]?
It sounded like a death sentence in a world where the Association was likely already hunting me. On the other hand, it was a three-week vacation. Marin would be happy that I stopped getting into trouble (naive), and I could finally get some sleep.
But most importantly, the elixir would give me 12 hours of absolute, uncontrollable power right now. Another bout of bloody coughing settled everything.
«Buying it.»
[ Purchase completed. Balance: 150 Coins. Thank you for using our self-destruction services. ]
A small crystal vial materialized in my palm, filled with a liquid resembling molten, glowing gold. I ripped the cork off with my teeth and downed the contents in one gulp. It tasted like melted caramel mixed with battery acid.
Takemichi, seeing this, backed away. — "W-what did you just drink?! Satoru, is that some kind of potion?"
— "It's..." — I froze.
The effect hit my body harder than any shinkansen. The pain vanished instantly, ground into powder. The torn channels flared with icy light, fusing and strengthening in milliseconds.
Mana, which a second ago was leaking into the void, flooded my veins like a roaring ocean. I took a deep breath, and the space around me obediently trembled. [Infinity] deployed automatically, dense and flawless.
I was at my peak again. I felt as if I could juggle planets.
I smoothly rose to my feet. The black epic cloak fluttered effectively behind my back.
— "This is liquid permissiveness, Prophet," — I cracked my neck, smiling broadly and sincerely. The fatigue was gone as if it had never existed. — "Pick up your loot. We have two more dungeons on the schedule, and now we're going through them on a speedrun."
The blond swallowed. He didn't dare argue with a man who had been spitting blood a second ago and was now shining so brightly it hurt to look.
With a grunt, hoisting the bag onto his shoulder, he asked: — "W-where to now?"
The Six Eyes, now working at 200% efficiency, pierced through night-time Tokyo. I easily caught a dense distortion of space several kilometers to the north.
— "Shinjuku. Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden," — I lazily adjusted the collar of my cloak. — "Something very prickly is blooming there right now."
The perfect place for the fourth round.
Forty minutes later, we climbed over the high wrought-iron fence of the park, which was closed for the night.
In the distance, the lights of Shinjuku's skyscrapers shone, but here, among the old trees and neatly trimmed bushes, an unnatural silence reigned, making my ears ring.
A huge C-rank Gate had opened right inside a glass greenhouse. Its windows were covered from the inside not with condensation, but with a strange substance shimmering in the moonlight, resembling pink frost.
I stepped into the portal first, without even slowing my pace. Mana seethed in my blood, demanding an exit.
[ You have entered a Dungeon (Rank: C+)]
[ Zone Specifics: "Crystal Hive." ]
[ Feature: Enemies deal piercing and slashing damage of razor sharpness. Protective magic is weakened inside the hive. ]
We found ourselves inside a giant, distorted version of a greenhouse. Instead of plants, sharp, razor-like growths of translucent pink and green crystal jutted out everywhere.
A chirping, ear-piercing sound came from above, setting my teeth on edge. Dozens of creatures, resembling giant two-meter wasps whose bodies consisted entirely of faceted, shimmering glass, detached from the crystal honeycombs on the ceiling and dove at us.
Their mandibles clicked like guillotines.
— "Duck, Prophet!" — I shouted cheerfully, raising my hand with crossed fingers. — "It's about to rain glass!"
I was already prepared to release [Blue] to crumple these crystal overgrowths into one shiny pile of rubble, when suddenly my elixir-enhanced brain, working with the clarity of a supercomputer, tripped over simple arithmetic.
It was as if a gear had jammed in a perfect mechanism.
«Stop» — I froze with my hand raised. The swarm of glass wasps was rapidly diving at us, their faceted eyes shimmering ominously. — «System. Slow down right now.»
The wasps, obeying the invisible pressure of my deployed [Infinity], crashed into the spatial barrier a meter from my face and began to scratch it with their mandibles with a vile screech.
«I had about a thousand coins after the goblins» — I began mentally, while Takemichi behind my back screamed in terror at the clicking jaws of the monsters.
— «Then fifteen hundred for the cyber-cockroaches. Plus the loot from the Boss — two thousand two hundred and fifty. That's almost five thousand total! The elixir cost two. Why the hell do I have a balance of 150 coins?! Where are my three thousand, you thief?!»
[ Sync System: Analyzing request... No calculation error detected. Explanation for Hosts who do not read the User Agreement (fine print on page 48):... ]
[ 1. The "Icarus's Credit"Elixir is a VIP-class item (Rank A). Your Shop level is "Rookie." The markup for bypassing rank restrictions is 40%. ]
[ 2. The tax for lifting the System block on mana channels and emergency intervention in the Vessel's structure is a fixed rate of 1500 Coins. ]
[ Total: A balance of 150 Coins is absolutely correct. Thank you for investing in your survival! ]
My eye under the blindfold twitched nervously.
«Tax for lifting the block?! You put it there yourself just to squeeze money out of me for removing it?! You're worse than the Tokyo tax office and the Yakuza combined!»
[ Sync System: I prefer the term "monopolist in the market for saving your lives." Now I recommend paying attention to the wasps. They are scratching your Infinity. It irritates my internal perfectionism. ]
I exhaled loudly through clenched teeth. Rage from the loss of honestly farmed money demanded an immediate, destructive outlet.
And, unfortunately for the local biocenosis, the outlet was right in front of me.
— "Hidden commissions, then..." — I whispered, and my smile became truly frightening.
— "S-Satoru?! What are we waiting for?! Burn them!" — Takemichi wailed in panic, covering his head with the bag.
— "I'm not going to burn them, Prophet," — I answered coldly. — "I'm going to break them."
I sharply uncrossed my fingers. The [Infinity] holding back the swarm vanished, and the wasps joyfully rushed at me.
— "Cursed Technique: Blue (Multiple)."
Instead of one large point of compression, I created a dozen small spheres of absolute vacuum right inside the swarm.
The air cracked. The glass wasps didn't even have time to understand what happened. Gravitational anomalies tore their crystal bodies apart from the inside.
A deafening, melodic chiming of breaking glass rang out. Thousands of shimmering shards and small cores rained down onto the greenhouse floor.
— "Collect them," — I threw to Takemichi, brushing crystal dust off my shoulder.
The elixir worked perfectly — mana restored faster than I could spend it. — "We'll strip this Hive to the last piece of glass. I will compensate for every cent stolen by the System."
The next half hour turned into a total, uncompromising clearing. I did not conserve power.
Anger at the "hidden commissions" poured out into cascades of [Blue] and [Red], turning the beautiful crystalline decorations of the dungeon into a lunar landscape.
Glass spiders, crystal caterpillars — everything flew into pieces. Takemichi only had time to crawl on his knees, scooping up loot into his already bursting bag.
Soon we came out into the center of the huge greenhouse. Here the glass ceiling was smashed, and through it shone the illusory, blood-red moon of the dungeon.
In the center of the hall, on a pedestal of pink quartz, it sat.
The Boss. Imperial Crystal Mantis.
The monster was magnificent. About three meters tall, its body consisted of perfectly faceted, transparent crystal that refracted light, making the creature almost invisible.
Instead of front legs, it had two curved, razor-sharp scythe-blades capable of cutting steel like warm butter.
[ Target:Crystal Mantis (Elite Boss, Rank: C+) ]
[ Feature: Optical illusion. Attack speed exceeds the speed of sound. ]
— "What a beauty," — I whistled. — "It's almost a shame to break it. Almost."
The Mantis jerked its triangular head. And in that same millisecond... it simply vanished.
«Optical camouflage,» — the Six Eyes instantly read. The monster refracted light with its body, becoming invisible.
But for my eyes, invisibility did not exist. I saw a clump of dense, cold mana that darted toward me with terrifying speed.
— "Too straightforward, little bug," — I stepped aside, avoiding the strike.
But I underestimated its "Optical Illusion". What I saw as its body turned out to be only a mana phantom. The real strike came from the left, with an incredible delay of refracted light.
I managed to dodge, but not fast enough.
WHOOSH!
The Mantis's scythe sliced through the air with a whistle a millimeter from my chest. [Infinity] blocked the lethal damage, but the edge of the blade, imbued with the Boss's specific piercing mana, slid across my jacket.
The unpleasant sound of tearing fabric rang out.
I leaped back, glancing at my chest. Marin's masterpiece — the dark blue jacket made of reinforced webbing that she had sewn through sleepless nights — was hopelessly ruined.
A huge, jagged hole gaped from my collarbone to my stomach, with torn Kevlar threads sticking out.
I froze. The eye under the blindfold stopped twitching.
In my head, the echo of Marin's voice from the previous evening rang out: «Just you try to tear it, Gojo Satoru. I'll kill you faster than any monster.»
And I remembered how she cried when I lay in blood, worrying about this very suit. The terror I felt now was stronger than from meeting any Special Grade curse.
— "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, YOU STUPID INSECT?!" — I roared, feeling an uncontrollable rage boiling inside me.
I instantly unzipped, threw off the ruined jacket, and mentally shoved it into the System Inventory, out of harm's way.
Maybe Marin could mend it. I hoped so with all my soul; otherwise, I'd have to emigrate to another universe.
I was left in a tight-fitting black sweater with a high neck. Over it, I gracefully flicked and wrapped my new epic "Mechanic's Shadow" cloak.
Black sweater, black flowing cloak, black blindfold over the eyes. My canonical, most dangerous look.
— "Now it's personal," — I hissed, raising my hand.
The Mantis, emitting a chirping sound, again tried to go into invisibility, preparing for a new rush.
— "Hide-and-seek is over."
I didn't bother forming seals with my fingers. I simply stretched my arm forward, palm open, and poured an absurd amount of mana into it, not caring about economy.
— "Cursed Technique: Red"
A sphere of pure, concentrated repulsion energy flared in my palm, lighting up the entire greenhouse with a bloody light.
The Mantis instinctively understood what was about to happen and tried to jump away, but it was too late.
I released the technique. The red beam, looking more like an orbital laser strike, roared through the hall. It hit the center of the invisible monster's chest.
The shockwave was of such power that the Crystal Mantis wasn't just thrown back. It was torn to pieces right in the air.
Fragments of the strongest crystal flew in all directions like shrapnel, piercing the walls and ceiling of the greenhouse.
BOOOOM!
When the dazzling flash faded, only a deep trench in the ground remained of the pedestal and the Boss, at the end of which a huge, watermelon-sized green crystal sparkled.
I opened the system window with anticipation, expecting to see a fat haul that would compensate for my losses.
[ TARGET DESTROYED! ]
[ Killed: Crystal Mantis (Elite C+rank Boss) ]
[ Base Reward: 2000 System Coins ]
[ ATTENTION! Active VIP-class buff (Rank A) detected in a low-rank dungeon. Penalty for "smurfing" and lack of fair challenge applied: -80% to experience and coins received. ]
[ Issued: 400 System Coins (Marauder's Ring Effect: +200 Coins) ]
[ Experience gained: 20%. Current level: 22 (Level up postponed). ]
My eye under the blindfold twitched so hard it nearly cramped my cheek.
«Penalty for smurfing?!» — I roared mentally, feeling the [Infinity] around me begin to spark threateningly from an excess of emotion. — «I bought a buff from you with my own money just so you could fine me for using it?! You're just mocking me!»
[ Sync System: The System economy is strictly balanced. Beating up crystalline insects under a god-buff is not heroism. Be thankful I didn't issue you a ban for cheating. Happy shard collecting, Host. ]
I slowly lowered my hand. The black cloak settled behind my back.
Inside me, a hurricane of mana raged alongside a desire to find the physical server of this System and demolish it with [Hollow Purple].
— "Satoru..." — Takemichi squeaked, peeking out from under his bag. — "That... that was scary."
— "I know," — I sighed heavily, rubbing the bridge of my nose under the blindfold. — "But the scariest thing awaits me at home when I show Marin the jacket. Collect the core, Prophet. We're going to the last, fifth dungeon. And, apparently, I'll have to carve out everything alive there just out of principle, to scrape together at least enough for a taxi."
I stepped toward the pulsating exit. Ahead lay the finale of this insane night.
And, it seemed, somewhere out there beyond the dungeons, the Association had already raised the entire country on alert.