Chapter 193: we aren’t running back

The inside of the F-4 gate didn’t look like the open riverbanks anymore. The moment they crossed the ink-black distortion, the yellow fog vanished, replaced by a wide, low-ceilinged cavern made of solid black salt blocks. The air was thick, heavy, and tasted intensely of dry brine and old copper. Every three seconds, the ceiling would give a slow, wet drip, the black salt water hitting the floor with a flat sound that echoed down the narrow tunnels.

Jun-ho walked forward, his oversized rubber boots crunching through a thick layer of grey salt crust that covered the old stone tracks. He held The Ash Remnant low, the matte-black surface of the weapon looking like a piece of solid shadow against the dim purple glow of the cave walls.

Eun-bi walked right at his elbow, her fingers still holding the frayed thread near his shoulder guard. Her electric headlamp was turned down to its lowest setting, the thin yellow beam cutting a shaky line through the dark air. She had pulled Gyeong-su’s old gray flannel shirt tight around her ribs, her chest heaving as she tried to breathe the heavy, salty air.

"The logic down here is completely broken, Jun-ho," she said, her voice dropping into a quiet, raspy whisper that didn’t travel past the nearest salt pillar. She stopped, her boots sliding an inch in the grey muck. "Look at the floor tiles near the edge. They aren’t running the standard Tier 1 gray script. The mineral lines are turning a deep crimson color. That’s a Tier 5 density signature."

Jun-ho stopped, letting the weight of his canvas duffel bag rest against a block of black salt. "The ledger multiplied the area drop tables by ten. The system had to pull the assets from the deeper layers to fill the ledger’s request."

"It didn’t just pull assets, idiot," she muttered, her fingers tightening around his sleeve until the old fabric groaned under her grip. Her face was very close to his in the narrow aisle, her dark hair sticking to her cheeks in wet, messy strands. "It pulled the Blind Iron Crabs. Those things don’t even belong to the maritime registry. The main guilds use heavy three-man vanguard lines with steel tower shields just to block their initial claw snap. If a pack of them drops from the ceiling in this narrow space, we can’t run back to the beach. The portal behind us is already locked by the area loop."

Jun-ho looked down at her bare forearm, which was shivering against his jacket. He didn’t look afraid, and he didn’t look back at the dark entry portal. Inside his chest, the vast, frozen pool of his Phase 2 mana was moving in a slow, deep circle that kept his skin perfectly warm despite the freezing brine leaking through the roof.

"We aren’t running back to the beach," Jun-ho said quietly. "We need the stones for Old Man Hak’s lugger."

"You talk like you’re buying copy paper at a department store," Eun-bi said, a dry, sharp chuckle escaping her lips through her teeth. She didn’t let go of his sleeve, her thigh pressing firmly against his side for stability as she looked down the dark tunnel path. "The old man is a greedy river rat, Jun-ho. If we show up on his wooden deck with a mountain of unfiltered Tier 5 gems, he won’t just ask for a passage fee. He’ll call the Sun God main office from his ship radio the second our backs are turned."

"He won’t use the radio," Jun-ho said. He shifted his grip on the black handle of his sword, his fingers perfectly steady. "Because when we walk onto his deck, he’s going to see what happened to the people who tried to use the tracking lines earlier."

Before Eun-bi could answer, a heavy, grinding noise echoed from the dark vault ahead.

Three massive shapes slid out from behind the black salt pillars. They weren’t the small, soft-shelled creatures the local fishermen usually caught; they were Ancient Iron Crabs—monsters the size of small delivery trucks, their shells made of thick, overlapping plates of dark grey iron that were covered in sharp salt crystals. Their massive front claws didn’t make a standard clicking sound; they hit the stone floor with a massive, dull thud that shook loose salt dust from the ceiling in thick sheets.

A sharp gray notification box opened across Jun-ho’s vision, completely silent.

[Encounter Active: Mutated Iron Crawler (Tier 5 Area Boss Logic) x3.]

[Status: Unfiltered / Mutated by The Monarch’s Ledger.]

[System Note: Neutralizing these targets will grant 100x standard experience and a 10x multiplied resource block.]

The three monsters didn’t roar. They dropped their heavy front plates into the grey crust, their small, yellow eyes locking straight onto Jun-ho’s rubber boots as they began to charge through the narrow aisle, their iron legs tearing up big chunks of the black salt floor.

"Get behind the pillar, Eun-bi," Jun-ho said, his voice dropping into a low, natural register that made the small air bubbles in her headlamp lens twitch.

"Don’t get turned into a grease spot, Jun-ho," she whispered, her fingers slowly releasing his sleeve as she backed toward the dark corner behind the thick salt block, her trauma scissors clutched tight but ready in her right hand.

Jun-ho took two long steps forward, his boots crunching into the grey salt crust. He didn’t drop into a vanguard block, and he didn’t lift a shield. He raised the solid black blade of The Ash Remnant with his left hand, his face perfectly flat under the dim purple glare of the cave walls.

The first monster lunged, its massive left claw coming down like a heavy iron mace straight for his chest.

Jun-ho didn’t move back an inch. He let the ocean of cold mana behind his ribs break its banks completely, the Ashen Domain - Phase 2 expanding outward in a flat, ten-meter ring of fine grey frost that turned the wet brine on the floor into a solid white disc of ice instantly.

The claw snap slowed down the moment it crossed his perimeter, the kinetic velocity stripped away by half. Jun-ho snapped his left wrist, driving the sharp matte edge of his black sword straight into the center of the monster’s iron shell.

The sound inside the closed salt room was deafening—a localized thunderclap that shattered the truck-sized shell into thousands of tiny gray shards. The iron plates didn’t bounce the blow off; they disintegrated completely, the shockwave throwing the remaining two monsters back against the salt pillars with a violent, heavy crunch that split the stone walls wide open.

[Target Neutralized: Mutated Iron Crawler.]

[Experience Gained: 4,500 XP.]

[Applying 100x Multiplier to Resource Logic...]

[Total Experience Gained: 450,000 XP.]

[Level Up!]

[You have reached Level 15.]

[You have received 5 Unassigned Attribute Points.]

Right in the center of the black mud where the first shell had exploded, a massive heap of glowing blue crystals materialized, piling up like regular gravel on the wet floor plates—over two hundred high-density mana stones, blinking with a thick, unfiltered light that cast long liquid shadows across the walls.

Jun-ho didn’t look at the gray notification boxes piling up in his eye. He turned his head slowly, looking back at the dark corner where Eun-bi was standing. She had her scissors clutched loose, a dry, sharp smile pulling at the corner of her lips as she looked at the mountain of blue light sitting between his boots.

"That’s a lot of fuel logic, Jun-ho," she called out through the gray mist, her voice returning to that regular, flat public-sector drawl. "Let’s pack the bags before the old man down at the pier decides to raise his rates again."

"The bags are large enough," Jun-ho said, his fingers closing around the cold handle of his sword as they prepared to clear the remaining two lines.