[Chapter 238. Scattered Lights]

Searanox shook his head; the thought was there, just at the edge of his mind. But the more he focused on what he had forgotten, the more it eluded him. The sensation was like trying to grasp a wisp of smoke, dissipating with every attempt to contain it. It lingered in the corners of his consciousness, a nagging weight in his gut that refused to be ignored. He had felt this before—the System-induced fog that sometimes obscured memories it deemed inconvenient—but this felt different. More personal.

`How did the saying go? If you can't remember it, then it was nothing of importance.`

He knew, however, that it was important. Perhaps not to others, but to him it was. Otherwise, he wouldn't have this feeling in his gut. His mind, usually sharp and reliable, offered no clues.

The wind whipping past his face as the drone accelerated seemed to whisper fragments of forgotten knowledge, just beyond comprehension. The night air carried the metallic scent of his armor, the faint coppery residue of his recent battle still clinging to him like a second skin. He ran his armored hand across his face, the texture of the material against his skin doing little to ground his wandering thoughts.

His drone pushed forward after a short mental command, carrying him over the walls and into the darkness. The city receded below him, its perfect grid of streets and violet-lit conduits shrinking into geometric patterns against the dark terrain. The wind grew colder at altitude. He took off the sunglasses he still wore, and the dim light of early night gave way to a bright vista, as if bathed in sunlight. The sudden transition from the familiar violet glow of the city to the stark brightness of his enhanced vision made his eyes water. Colors intensified—every blade of grass on the plains below became distinct; every rock formation stood out in stark relief against the darkness.

`I'm not sure if this will work, but it's worth a try.`

His drone carried him up toward the northeast. The experimental method, discovered by mere accident, promised to find dungeons even without his drones. The landscape beneath him unfolded with impossible clarity, revealing details no human eye could discern in such conditions. The drone's engines maintained a constant hum, the vibration traveling up through the frame and into his bones, a familiar rhythm that had become his constant companion.

Close to half an hour later, he saw something down in the distance—a faint light. It was not as bright as he had guessed it would be in the night, but he could see it. The glow pulsed like a slow heartbeat in the darkness. It stood out against the natural landscape, an artificial anomaly that drew his gaze. His drone banked toward the light and closed the distance. As he neared the portal, he saw that it was darker than the ones he knew. Its swirling surface was calm, unlike the chaotic energy of the portals he had normally encountered. This one seemed dormant, sedate in its movements.

`A dormant gate?`

The question formed in his mind as he circled the phenomenon, observing its patterns. Focusing his intent on the gate brought up the familiar System window.

The timer counted down from just under five hours, meaning someone had been here recently—within the last few hours, if the standard cooldown applied. He scanned the perimeter, noting the absence of disturbed vegetation or any signs that someone had been there. Either they were meticulous, or powerful enough to leave no trace. The thought of another group operating at this efficiency in what he considered his territory stirred something possessive and cold within him.

`It's been cleared, and not that long ago. Depending on the cycle this one has.`

His drone brought him back into the air. His eyes scanned the surroundings for tracks or signs of whoever had cleared the dungeon. Even with his enhanced vision, the ground was dark and uneven, peppered with shrubs and occasional trees that clawed at the night sky. The terrain revealed little—no discarded supplies, no blood trails leading away from the portal. The air itself seemed still, carrying only the faint metallic scent of his own armor and the earthy smell of damp soil. His frustration mounted as the drone climbed higher, its engines whirring against the silence of the wilderness.

Night had fallen, casting the world into a dark embrace. Not much light came from the cloud-covered sky, and even with his vision, he could not see much. Only a few beasts stalked the night, their forms flickering between shadows like ghosts, while the glowing portal below him pulsed as a steady beacon in the darkness. The clouds overhead thickened, blotting out what little starlight might have penetrated. The world below became a tapestry of deep blues and blacks, punctuated only by the movement of nocturnal predators and the artificial glow of the dungeon entrance.

`I should stay out of dungeons level fifteen and below. There is not much to gain if there are others clearing them out.`

The calculation formed in his mind—his time was too valuable to waste on instances where others might have already claimed the most important reward. With that thought, his drone rose higher into the air, expanding his view. The darkness stretched in every direction, an endless expanse broken only by the faintest suggestions of geographical features. His drone stopped right below the cloud cover, giving him the furthest view he could achieve on this particular night.

`I can see a large river over there. And I know Androxis is over there.`

The river snaked through the landscape like a vein of liquid moonlight, its surface catching and reflecting even the faintest ambient light. The drone banked, adjusting its course to maintain altitude while giving him a clear view of the river's path as it wound toward his domain.

He turned his head toward the southwest and looked into the distance where his city stood. His eyes followed the horizon, searching for any sign of the massive structure that dominated the region. Even at this height, Androxis remained invisible, its dark walls hidden in the darkness of night. Still, he knew its location by heart—the six-hundred-meter spire of the Magitech Fortress Tower, the perfect grid of streets, the violet glow. The knowledge that it was there, thriving under his rule, provided a strange comfort amidst the uncertainty of the wilderness beyond his control. His gaze continued moving, sweeping across the western horizon where the terrain changed.

`Somewhere over there should be the forest.`

The forest where his first base of operations was located, where he had first encountered the System's full power and made decisions that had shaped everything that followed. It was where he had tested his abilities against increasingly dangerous foes, where he had first begun to understand the true scale of the transformation that had overtaken their world. The memory surfaced and faded.

Searanox turned back toward the river, focusing into the distance. There was not much he could see from this height, only rough shapes and large terrain details smudging against the darkness. Nothing obstructed his vision here except the scattered trees that clawed at the night like skeletal hands, and shrubs that huddled low to the ground. A faint glow pulsed along the riverbank, consistent and rhythmic like a sleeping heart. Another glow sat further out in the plains, its light brighter than the one on the river's bank.

`Two dungeons. The plains make it much easier to spot them than it would be in the forest.`

Out here, in the open expanse, nothing hid the System's creations. No canopy to conceal them, no thick trunks to block their entrances. They stood out like dim beacons in the landscape, each pulsing with that distinctive otherworldly energy.

The wind whipped at his coat, the fabric snapping like dark flags against the drone's constant hum. Toward the forest, another soft glow was shining like a star in the distance.

"Another dungeon. That is insane. I should have done this much sooner," he said, the words snatched away by the wind as they formed. He thought of the hours he had wasted waiting for his drones to discover the dungeons one by one, of the inefficient method he'd employed. The realization settled in his gut like cold iron—another tactical advantage he had failed to capitalize on.

`The only question now is, where to go first?`

With that thought, he pulled a silver coin from his ring, the metal appearing in his palm with a faint shimmer of blue light. The coin felt light in his armored fingers, its weight familiar and grounding. He tossed it into the air.

`Blank toward the forest, and the scales to the river.`

The gleaming coin spun in the dark, catching what little light filtered through the clouds and reflecting the dim violet glow of his drone beneath. For a moment, it became a tiny star against the vast darkness, its trajectory a perfect arc in the night. He caught it deftly, his hand moving with practiced ease, and opened his grip. The blank side lay in his open palm, its smooth surface absorbing what little light reached it.

`Looks like toward the forest we go.`

His gaze pivoted toward the glow in the distance, its pulsing light growing distinct as he focused on it. The drone beneath him was already banking toward it, the frame angling with smooth precision as it pushed off in its new direction. The hum of its engines changed pitch as it accelerated, carrying him forward into the darkness, toward the unknown dungeon that waited at the forest's edge.