Chapter 255: Basalt Breach

Chapter 111: The Basalt Breach

The crimson glow leaking from the red coral reef didn’t just colour the sea mist; it turned the entire hundred-meter perimeter of the channel into a heavy, blood-coloured lane that felt as thick as cold grease. The water surrounding the basalt gate was churning in slow, massive whirlpools that ground against the ship’s oak timbers with a low, hollow groan that vibrated straight through the floorboards.

Jun-ho stood at the absolute tip of the wooden bow, his large rubber boots planted two feet apart on the non-slip fiberglass deck. He had unslung his heavy canvas duffel bag, letting the leather casing rest flat against the timber rail near his shins. His plain gray shirt was dark with condensation, the fabric clinging tightly to his shoulders and exposing the dense, iron-hard lines of his frame, which had settled into an immense physical weight after unlocking his Phase 5 Master milestone.

His left hand kept an unwavering, iron-hard grip around the rough black hemp wrap of The Ash Remnant. The solid four-foot wedge of matte metal lay flat across his palm, its four ancient characters burning with a slow, white-hot fire that cast no illumination but made the crimson sea water beneath the keel ripple in small, perfect circles.

Right at the corner of his left eye, the solid black status text remained rock-steady.

[ Level: 50]

[ Mana: 4200/11500 ]

[Active Trait: Ashen Domain (Phase 5 – 100-meter radius)]

[Kinetic Framework: 7,500x Strike Weight]

"The primitive logic down there is completely unfiltered, Jun-ho," Eun-bi’s voice called out from the side of the main terminal box on the bridge deck. She had her canvas bag slung tight across her waist, her gray flannel shirt left undone at the throat because of the suffocating heat coming off his newly expanded mana pool. Her dark hair was wet and messy, loose strands sticking to her chin as she adjusted her clipboard

"The database log says the basalt gate is reinforced with three layers of an old Ministry archive seal. If we try to force it manually, the network will drop a high-tier blood lock spell that will freeze our props from behind."

Lilith slide right up to his left elbow, her exceptionally long, smooth legs cutting a clean line through the low purple mist of the deck. The tight crimson leather of her outfit pulled dangerously flat across the voluptuous, perfect curve of her round hips, her narrow waist twisting with a deliberate, heavy rhythm that brought her frame right against his denim trousers. Her massive, half-visible chest rose and fell in quick, deep gasps against his bare upper arm, her full red lips parting into a low, breathless murmur that carried the sharp scent of raw sulfur and dark incense straight to his neck.

"The little nurse wants to spend twenty minutes tracing registration wires in the dark, big guy," Lilith whispered, her wide crimson eyes glowing with a lazy, dangerous fire under her long ink-black hair. Her long fingers caught the wet hem of his gray shirt, pulling his torso closer to her shoulder with a teasing, hot friction that made his skin prickle against the frost. "My ledger has the old unranked bypass coordinates from the lower reef. Let me handle the coral shafts with Rea, Jun-ho... we can slip past the inner guardian entities and clear the vault console before the alarm stone can even release a single spark."

Rea slide off the secondary structural rail right behind her shoulder, the high-slashed silk of her black tunic parting all the way to her upper thigh to show the long, smooth line of her leg under the yellow safety lamps. Her golden-blue eyes spun slowly in a lazy, dangerous circle under the gray sky, her full crimson lips tightening into a thin, jealous line as she wedged her own voluptuous hourglass shape tight against Jun-ho’s opposite sleeve, her wild orchid perfume cutting sharp through Lilith’s sulfur incense.

"The demon girl is right about the path for once, big guy," Rea murmured, her bare arm rubbing against his shirt fabric with a heavy, possessive friction that competitive edge turning her tone sharp. "Our Phase 5 speed is high enough to clear the perimeter without triggering the baseline metrics. But you have the raw mass to break the line right through the center if you want to skip the tunnels. Tell us which option you want to execute."

Jun-ho didn’t pull back an inch from any of them. He looked at the massive circular gate of black volcanic basalt rock, then down at the dark iron grating of the lower coral shafts.

"We execute both," Jun-ho said, his voice quiet and dry.

[Class Skill Active: Monarch’s Decree - Phase 5 Variant.]

[Target Group: Ancient Guardian Entities (x3).]

[Decree Log: Freeze all active mana channel lines for 120 seconds.]

[Mana Cost: 1,500. Current Mana: 2700/11500.]

A sudden, terrifying rush of white mana shot out from his core plate armor, traveling straight through the red coral reef without making a sound. Inside the basalt gate, the three ancient guardian entities froze instantly, their massive four-meter torsos of twisted train wheels staying pinned to the stone tracks, their red central eyes turning a dead gray color as their internal logic loops were completely locked by the decree.

"Rea, Lilith, take the shafts and disarm the console," Jun-ho ordered flatly. "Tae-woo, clear the frame."

The two master rogues moved together in a single, fluid blur of red leather and black silk. With their multiplied speed, they dove straight into the narrow opening of the coral shafts, their long smooth legs cutting a clean line through the purple mist as they glided through the narrow secondary channels to secure the inner terminal before the guardians could recover.

Jun-ho took two long steps forward, stepping straight onto the wet concrete blocks of the pier line. He raised The Ash Remnant with his left hand, the new black hemp wrap dry and solid in his grip. He let the lake of cold mana behind his ribs break its banks completely, the Ashen Domain - Phase 5 expanding outward in a flat, one-hundred-meter ring of thick grey frost.

[Ashen Domain Phase 5 Active.]

[Perimeter State: 100 meters (Extended by the Monarch’s Torc).]

[Mana Cost: 500 per minute. Current Mana: 2200/11500.]

He simply snapped his left wrist, driving the sharp matte edge of the seven-thousand-five-hundred-fold blade straight down onto the center of the reinforced volcanic basalt gate.

The sound inside the closed maritime channel wasn’t an ordinary blast; it was a localized earthquake that shattered all three layers of the massive basalt gate into thousands of tiny stone shards. The force of the strike, multiplied seven thousand five hundred times by the weapon’s bound trait, didn’t just clear the entrance; the shockwave traveled straight through the threshold, fracturing the six steel security vaults inside the main room and throwing the iron deadbolts clean off their brackets.

[Target Neutralized: Sunken Treasury Ruins Basalt Portal.]

[The Monarch’s Ledger Multiplier Active: 100x Vault Asset Calculation Applied.]

Right through the thick cloud of stone dust and white frost, the interior of the ancient throne core vault lay wide open, the six massive vaults pouring a mountain of high-tier unrefined crystals across the granite floor blocks under the brilliant blue glare. Rea and Lilith burst through the inner drainage door at the exact same microsecond, their obsidian blades clean and ready, their golden-blue and crimson eyes spinning in a lazy, victorious circle as they met him at the center desk.

"The security grid is completely dead, big guy," Lilith called out, her voice a deep, sultry purr as her voluptuous hips leaned hard into his right side to mark her territory.

Jun-ho lowered his sword, his fingers uncurling from the rough hemp grip as the solid black text at the bottom of his eye began to count down the final level-up resource values.

The neon azure fire that burst out from the six ruptured iron lockboxes didn’t just cast light; it sent down sweeping, liquid bands of sapphire glare that turned the white stone dust hanging under the basalt rafters into a thick purple fog. The sheer weight of the unrefined throne crystals lay piled three feet high across the central ledger desk, their combined mana signature thumping against the granite tiles with a heavy, rhythmic vibration that made the floor plates beneath Jun-ho’s rubber boots hum continuously. ℴ

Jun- ho stood behind the mahogany counter, his left hand keeping a casual, unyielding grip around the rough black hemp warp of The Ash Remnant. He had unbuckled the thick stone-gray panels of his chest plate, letting the heavy rock slabs rest flat near his shins. His plain gray shirt was dark with condensation, the cotton fabric clinging flat to his shoulder blades and outlining the dense, iron-hard lines of his frame, which had grown immensely thick after his Master milestone allocation.

Right at the lower corner of his eye, the solid black status text blocks were waiting, perfectly silent.