Instead of staying on the defensive, Sokram lunged at the Ice Spider, ‘Dark Lightning – Tetra Slash!’

  The spider, sensing great danger, stepped back.

  The creature’s four hind legs sank into the stony ground, and it raised the other four to counterattack.

  Still, even before it could move properly, Sokram was already right below it.

  His blade slid through its sternum with ease.

  “Slash!”

  The spider let out an agonizing screech and lunged down with its forelegs, aiming to crush Sokram.

  A geyser of ichor erupted from the wound. It was thick, neon green, and smelled of sulfur and rotten eggs.

  It hissed as it hit the cold stone, steaming in the frigid air.

  But even before the green blood that gushed out of the spider hit the floor, Sokram had already moved behind the spider in another flash of dark lightning.

  His blade tore through two of its hind legs at the joint with the sternum.

  “Slash!”

  The spider struck empty stone. Before the confusion could set in, pain exploded in its side.

  Its body lost its balance as it fell to the side.

  Before it could even register what happened, it caught a glimpse of something standing on its back.

  “Slash!”

  The next thing the spider saw was two of its forelegs falling down the mountain.

  Sokram's last slash hit the spider’s brain, splitting the creature's head in two, and without realizing how it had died, its body hit the floor.

  Sokram rode the momentum of his strike to widen the distance between the spider and himself. But his real intention was to lure the griffons, who were still flying above, observing the fight.

  And they took the bait.

  As soon as the griffons saw that the spider had lost the fight, they dived down.

  One aimed at Sokram, and the other dove for the fallen spider.

  But while they were mid-dive, the griffons saw two shining objects piercing the air toward them, barely giving them time to dodge.

  The one aiming for Sokram managed to dodge. Before its eyes could find Sokram again, its vision went dark.

  Sokram appeared right beside it, and his blade slashed the griffon’s head cleanly as if a hot knife cutting through butter.

  The second griffon ignored the needle that pierced its back, judging the damage it caused to be insignificant, and continued on its dive toward the spider.

  But Sokram didn’t give it time to regret the decision, because as soon as he beheaded the first one, he teleported to the second griffon and his blade sank into it mercilessly.

  ‘Killing Blade Art - Crushing Mountain: Mountain Splitter!’

  Repeating the move he used to kill that first griffon, he also split this one in half, but this time diagonally.

  Before the two griffons’ bodies hit the cliff or fell down the mountain, dark lightning flashed, and Sokram stashed the bodies into his Void Glove.

  In the next instant, he reappeared beside the dead spider, but pierced his katana into its brain one last time to make sure it was dead.

  “Huff… That was fun.” Sokram chuckled, then took a deep breath as he stored the spider’s body and the legs he could find in his Void Glove.

  Then he turned toward the cave entrance, frowning. ‘Entering a spider’s nest is not something I'd envisioned doing today. Well, I can at least get rid of the webs, right?’

  With a sharp flick of his wrist, the needle that missed the griffon appeared in Sokram’s hand, and he threw it at the top of the cave entrance.

  The next second, he leaned back into a seemingly exaggerated motion. His chest bloated. Mana surged into his lungs, turning them into a furnace that exploded out with a roar as he cast it with a thought...

  ‘Fire Breath!’

  “ROAAAAARRR!!!” He exhaled, and his sight blurred orange.

  A torrent of booming fire roared from his chest, guttural and mighty, distorting the air with heat waves so intense they blurred the very rock of the cave entrance.

  Sokram almost didn’t have time to teleport, as countless spiders rushed out of the cave, fleeing from the fire and jumping off the cliff.

  The skittering hammered the stone like frantic rain on a glass dome. The frantic skittering of thousands of bladed legs, shallowly piercing stone.

  A tide of white bodies poured from the cave mouth, some burnt, others melting, screeching in panic as the flames licked at their heels.

  Using Force with his Elemental Manipulation, his body remained glued to the mountain’s wall.

  Sokram counted at least fifty Ice Spiders of various sizes, with bodies ranging from fifty centimeters to three meters across.

  The bigger ones were fast to form webs to save the smaller ones and themselves.

  But Sokram couldn’t have them crawling their way back into the cave, so with his body glued to the stony wall above the cave entrance, he cast with a thought, ‘Rain of Fire!’

  His hand raised to the sky, and as he swung it down, hundreds of fire bolts rained onto the webs and the walls of the mountain, creating a landslide that hit the spiders before they could even register it.

  But thanks to it, most of the cliff collapsed as well, leaving only a small naturally formed platform at the cave’s entrance.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Sokram jumped down and stepped into the cave.

  With another flick of his hand, the needle on top of the entrance was back in his possession.

  And he quickly threw it on the ceiling of the cave, creating a return point in case the cave was too deep or a dead end.

  He unsheathed his sword and marched forward, scanning the dark cave carefully, thankful for his Night Vision, as by then the sky had already begun to darken.

  While exploring the cave, Sokram found five spatial rings, with potions, alchemical reagents, gold crowns and coins, and even a few good weapons he could sell.

  He also killed a few of what he presumed were baby Ice Spiders, but once he reached the end of the cave, he almost felt disappointed, as it looked like a dead end.

  Just as he was about to teleport back, the sound of running water reached his ears from behind a muddy wall.

  ‘Fireball!’ – “BOOOOM!!!”

  “Haha, that was stupid but worked,” Sokram muttered to himself as the ringing in his ears muddled his senses.

  Behind the muddy wall was another cave tunnel, but this one was a slippery trap.

  Beneath his feet, Sokram felt running water and moss.

  The narrow passage went down, but what surprised Sokram was how concentrated the mana felt there.

  Not just in the damp, mineral-scented air that came out of the new cave tunnel, but in the water as well.

  ‘Heh, this is getting interesting. The last time I was here, it wasn’t like this. Did someone find another treasure before I found the tomb?’ Sokram thought as he manipulated the mana-filled water to form a capsule around his body and jumped down the tunnel, surrendering himself to the rushing current.

  For a while, Sokram just fell.

  A long, near breathless moment, that he tumbled through darkness and roaring water.

  Inside the water capsule, the roar of the current thundered in Sokram's ears, drowning out his own thoughts as he sank into the mountain's inner cave system.

  At the end of the first tunnel, he reached a waterfall more than a hundred meters long inside the mountain.

  When he hit the lake at the bottom of the waterfall, the water capsule broke.

  He wasn’t harmed, thanks to it absorbing all of the impact.

  But sensing the water still pulling him, he threw a needle toward one of the walls.

  Making sure it stuck, he formed a new water capsule around him before being dragged away into another tunnel.

  At that moment, Sokram was very thankful he was a dragon.

  Because, although there was barely any air to breathe, the mana was abundant, allowing him to convert it into breathing air while keeping his mana pool full.

  After the second fall, Sokram left another needle behind, right at the edge of his sensory reach.

  He oriented himself by it, knowing the needles' sensory reach was limited to one kilometer.

  And repeating the same process again and again.

  On his count, by the end of his wild descent, he had plunged five kilometers into the mountain.

  He was now five hundred meters underground.

  Thankfully, there were no more waterfalls, and he could even see a shore inside the gigantic underground gallery.

  The cavern wasn't completely dark. It was bathed in an alien, bioluminescent light.

  Giant fungi and moss-choked plants glowed with emerald fluorescent light.

  At the same time, giant mushrooms, towering like trees, cast a soft purpleish light.

  The natural plant lights cast long shadows across the subterranean beach and gave just enough light for Sokram to see perfectly, especially with his Night Vision.

  And as he looked around, the air was thick with moisture and the musky odor of unwashed bodies.

  The stench struck him along with the smell of wet fur, stagnant water, and the metallic scent of dried blood.

  Sokram froze.

  The cavern was packed with giant trolls lurking on both sides.

  But these trolls weren’t like the common ones found on the surface; they were a species called Hulking Cave Trolls.

  All of them were born at the True Existence level, and Sokram could see at least three that were Tier 10 like him.

  Engaging them meant being outnumbered.

  Even if Sokram could be faster than the trolls, he wouldn’t be able to kill them without using his full strength because of their healing factor.

  And in situations like exploring deep underground caves, conserving strength was a must.

  But just as he was about to turn around, his gaze met a few young trolls playing around.

  To call it playing would be weird to most humanoids, as what they were really doing was throwing boulders at each other and waiting for their wounds to heal.

  Sokram watched as a crushed shoulder snapped back into place with a flesh-muffled crunch. Open, flesh wound turned closed in seconds, the skin knitting together as if an invisible needle were sewing it shut.

  But Sokram merely shrugged, having seen stranger things.

  These trolls weren’t very intelligent, but they were still as smart as five-year-old humans.

  Sokram stealthily threw a needle under a naturally formed bridge.

  Teleporting there, he used Force via Elemental Manipulation to minimize mana cost. And glued his body under the cover of the darkness.

  He retrieved the Allseer’s Codex from his Void Glove and studied the map again.

  This time, it showed the entire mountain's cave system, making it clear that the Codex treated the whole structure as a single location.

  Sokram looked at the book long enough to look like he was memorizing the path toward the tomb, and then found the page speaking about the trolls:

  [Hulking Cave Troll – The species of Troll with the strongest healing factor, they are born directly into the True Existence…]

  While skimming through the information, Sokram's eyes found what he truly wanted:

  [Biomancy: The blood of the Hulking Cave Trolls is counted among the best regenerative ingredients for elixirs and potions. It’s even possible to create Rejuvenation potions and pills with this powerful ingredient. The younger the troll, the more potent the effect of its blood.]

  A greedy smile surfaced on Sokram’s face.

  His gaze locked onto the group of ten young trolls throwing boulders at each other, all were Tier 1, with only a Tier 8 Troll nearby, who Sokram realized was babysitting them.

  The other three Tier 10s were on the other side of the river, lazing around.

  Sokram looked at the passage he needed to enter to reach the tomb, then he counted the needles he still had.

  He had already burned through eight needles during his descent, from the griffon's nest to there, meaning he still had forty-two in his Void Glove.

  He knew he was being greedy, but he didn’t know when such an opportunity would present itself to him again.

  He also regretted that he didn’t have the material to create a Long-Distance Teleportation Array in his Void Glove either.

  Sokram stored the Allseer’s Codex back, and, taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes, trying his best to calculate every outcome in his mind.

  Sokram formed a plan, and as soon as he opened his eyes, he acted.

  Sokram launched one of his needles with all his might, creating a teleportation point as close as he could to the passage leading toward the tomb.

  Next, he launched another one at another cave entrance in the opposite direction.

  And finally, he threw ten needles at the young trolls, aimed at each one of them.

  The whistle of the needles piercing through the air barely echoed inside the cave, but it was enough to alert the older trolls.

  As soon as the ten needles reached the young trolls, Sokram became a blur of death.

  His image flashed ten times in a single heartbeat, a trail of afterimages marking the precise moment ten heads were severed from their shoulders.

  By the time the nearby Tier 8 understood what was happening, the youngsters were already dropping like flies with their heads rolling on the ground.

  “ROOAAARR!!!”

  Sokram heard the enraged roar and knew he had only a few seconds left to store what he could before being swarmed from all sides.

  ‘Dark Lightning – Dashing Snake.’

  A flash of dark lightning formed a snake that divided into ten, and the troll bodies disappeared into Sokram’s Void Glove one by one in quick succession.

  Suddenly, he felt a heavy pressure as a broad shadow loomed over his body.

  He barely had time to look at the three Hulking Trolls that jumped at him at a speed he couldn't believe a Troll could exert, while trying to squash him down with their hulking arms.

  “BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!”

  Sokram expertly dodged all three attacks and cast again, ‘Dark Lightning – Dashing Snake.’

  He got the Troll's bodies, but draconic greed knows no bounds, and he had to go for the heads too.

  As he had done it previously, as soon as the dark lightning snake reached the heads, they would disappear into Sokram’s Void Glove.

  Sokram managed to get seven of the ten heads, but just as he was going for the eighth, one of the Tier 10 Trolls reached him first.

  “BANG!”

  The troll's fist cut through the air in a split second.

  It wasn't just a punch; it was a wrecking ball of muscle and bone powered by raw Chaos Energy.

  Sokram barely had time to raise a mana shield before the hulking fist hit his shield with the force of a falling boulder.

  The mana shield shattered like glass under a hammer blow.

  Even if it was enough to absorb a part of the impact, the troll's attack did a lot of damage.

  The world spun, his vision darkened and blurred as the world around him rolled, water, ceiling, water, ceiling.

  Sokram skipped across the water like a hurled stone. The surface of the lake felt as hard as concrete as he skipped across it, gritting his teeth as the impact shook his brain.

  “BOOM!”

  Sokram slammed into the far wall on the other side of the underground river, raising a huge dust cloud.