[Chapter 239. Inside the Mine]

The soft blue glow of the portal intensified with every passing second as his drone drew closer. Its ethereal light pushed back the darkness dominating the landscape. What had appeared as a distant star now resolved into a clearly defined phenomenon—a perfect oval of energy defying the night's grasp.

He could make out its deep cerulean color, which spoke of an active gate, unlike the dormant one he had encountered earlier. The portal's swirling patterns became visible at this distance. They were chaotic yet mesmerizing, like a captured storm contained within an invisible boundary.

His drone stopped right in front of the gate, hovering a mere ten meters from its surface. His suspicion was correct—the gate swirled violently, its inner depths churning with a furious energy that seemed to breathe. The air around the portal crackled with static, making the fine hairs on his arms stand on end even beneath his armor.

`It's active.`

The thought solidified in his mind as he focused on the swirling portal and dismounted his drone. His boots landed on the uneven ground, the slight crunch of disturbed earth barely audible over the portal's low thrumming. He focused on the gate and brought up its information. The text appeared stark against the backdrop of darkness.

`Level thirty... That means the beasts inside are all above my level.`

The thought coiled in his mind like a venomous snake, its fangs sinking into his confidence. Every creature within would be at least his equal, potentially his superior. He had never deliberately entered a dungeon where the challenges were calibrated to exceed his capabilities. His methodical approach to progression favored safety—clearing instances far below his level for guaranteed gains, or matching his strength against equal foes for measured risk. Then, the memory of the Burrowing Depths surfaced, unbidden. Not the normal version, but the corrupted variant he had barely survived. It was the one that had pushed him to his absolute limits and beyond, leaving scars both visible and hidden.

`This dungeon could turn out just like that nightmare.`

The comparison sent a cold dread trickling down his spine, though his face remained impassive. He began to pace before the swirling portal, his armored boots leaving faint impressions in the earth. Each circuit brought a new consideration to mind. The possible levels he would gain barely registered against the certain agony he would endure. His mind calculated the grave injuries he might sustain. Yet beneath the fear, a familiar hunger stirred—the thirst for power that had driven him this far. The loot waiting at the end of it all, which could push his abilities beyond their current limitations, beckoned to him like a siren's call.

Searanox stopped pacing and closed his eyes. The cerulean glow of the portal painted his eyelids in otherworldly light. He tightened his jaw, the muscles bunching along his temples as he wrestled with indecision. The wind whispered past him, carrying the scent of nature.

"You cannot grow stronger without taking risks."

The words emerged as a low growl, more for his own benefit than any listener. With them spoken aloud, the decision crystallized in his mind. There was no room for hesitation. He stepped through the portal in a single, decisive motion.

The transition was instantaneous yet disorienting. One moment he stood on rolling grasslands beneath a cloud-covered night sky; the next, he occupied a high, wide tunnel that was just as dark. The temperature dropped, the air growing thick with the smell of damp stone, rust, and something vaguely reminiscent of decay. Wooden support beams stood like skeletal sentinels at regular intervals throughout the long tunnel ahead. Their surfaces were slick with moisture and covered in patches of phosphorescent moss that cast a sickly green glow. The darkness seemed to press in from all sides, a palpable weight against his enhanced vision.

Searanox pulled out his rifle. The familiar weight of the weapon grounded him as his fingers found their accustomed positions. He summoned a squad of drones. They materialized beside him one after another, shimmering into existence with flashes of blue light that illuminated the immediate vicinity. Two defensive, two assault, two offensive, and one recon drone hovered in formation around him, their metallic bodies gleaming in the mossy luminescence.

He took slow, measured steps forward. His boots crushed the hard-packed ground beneath his weight, and his drones flanked his sides as he made his way deeper into the tunnel. His defensive drones barriers overlapped in the front while forming protective walls to his sides. The assault and offensive drones flew overhead, their weapons systems pre-charging with whines of building energy. The recon drone scouted further down the tunnel, its flight leaving no trace in the musty air.

The walls to his side were rough, they were not dug up recently by the dust and vegetation on some of the sections. The rough-hewn stone bore the marks of crude tools, chipped and gouged rather than cleanly cut. His fingers twitched toward the surface as he passed, feeling the chill radiating from the damp rock. The ground was smooth but far from plain. In the middle of the tunnel was something akin to a rail track. It looked similar to the ones he knew from his old world: two metal tracks connected by supporting brackets, their surfaces reflecting the green glow of the phosphorescent moss in eerie patterns.

`It appears there is not much you can do differently when building a track.`

He inspected the tracks. They were free of rust, even though the tunnel itself looked abandoned for quite some time. The metal gleamed with an unnatural luster, as if immune to the decay that consumed everything else in this subterranean world. His mind calculated the implications. Some preservation magic or technological process maintained these rails, suggesting this dungeon wasn't as abandoned as it appeared.

Further in, his drone notified him of something ahead. He checked the memories his drone provided. Just ahead were two large beasts. They stood about a meter tall and had plated, spiked shells. Their forms moved with a lumbering gait, the spikes on their shells catching the light and throwing it back in fragmented patterns.

`They look like armadillos.`

The comparison brought fleeting images from his old world, creatures that rolled into balls for defense. But these beasts were different. Their shells weren't smooth curves, but jagged, spike-covered plates that seemed to have grown rather than formed, each edge sharpened to a deadly point. Their heads were small, negligible compared to their armored bodies, with beady eyes that reflected the tunnel's dim light.

After a few meters, the tunnel narrowed, forcing the darkness into a tighter embrace, and he could see them with his own eyes. They stood in the gloom, their claws scratching at the hard-packed ground, producing a grating sound that echoed off the stone walls. They unearthed something dark and glistening before eating whatever they had just dug up, their movements deliberate.

His two defensive drones slid forward, their metallic bodies creating a shimmering barrier that completely blocked off the tunnel ahead. The barrier's energy field pulsed with a blue light, casting the approaching beasts in an otherworldly hue. His other drones adjusted their positions with mechanical precision, floating overhead to establish optimal firing angles. He had learned from fighting those massive turtles in the Molten Core that it made little sense to fire directly at their shells, but there was not much of this creature visible beneath its armor. The only parts not covered by the tough-looking shell were its clawed feet and a small portion of its head.

With a precise, practiced movement, he turned his rifle on them. His finger tightened on the trigger as he let loose a violet beam of pure energy that cut through the darkness. His four drones above joined in simultaneously, releasing beams of their own that converged on the targets. Each beam made contact with the spiked shells, causing the creatures to flinch violently. Where the energy struck, the tough plating cracked and burned away, revealing the softer tissue beneath and giving him a good estimate on how durable the shell was.

The first beast let out a high-pitched squeal of pain that echoed in the enclosed space, its head swiveling toward him with surprising speed. Its eyes, which had appeared dull and indifferent moments before, now burned with something malevolent. With a sudden jolt of movement that belied its armored bulk, it dashed forward. Its speed was faster than he had anticipated for a beast so heavily armored, its claws scraping against the stone as it propelled itself forward.

Just before reaching the barrier, it rolled into a tight ball and slammed its spiked shell into the energy field with a force that sent visible ripples across its surface. The second beast impacted the barrier right after the first. It however launched into the air with its powerful legs, spinning as it rose before impacting higher up the barrier.