The Author's POV

[Pillar of Greed]

It was dark and damp. A musty smell of damp earth and rocks filled Ryan's nostrils as his eyes slowly opened up.

Blinking a couple of times, he noticed that he couldn't quite see very far. The dim lighting around him made it difficult to see beyond a few meters. When he reached out with his hand, he felt a rough and uneven surface.

'A cave?'

That was the first thought that crossed his mind as he felt the sides of the walls.

Drip. Drip.

The sound of dripping water echoed in all directions in the space he was in, further reaffirming his original assumption.

"Hm?"

Right when he tried to move, he noticed that his feet were bound to something and that the little mana inside of his body had been completely sealed.

"Shit."

Letting out a curse, he squinted his eyes and noticed a small bracelet on his ankles.

They were firmly clamped at his ankles and were rather thick. About the size of his forearms and made it impossible for him to move properly.

'This is bad.'

He knew instantly that the situation was not good.

It was also at that moment that he recalled what had led to his sudden appearance over here, and his expression changed.

"Leopold?"

He called out, hoping to receive some sort of answer, but it was much to his dismay that he realized that he was the only person inside the cave.

"Crap."

Ryan started to worry a little.

Although Leopold was stronger than him, he didn't know what was currently happening and was understandably worried.

That being said…

"Huu."

All it took was a single breath for Ryan to calm himself down. He had been on many dangerous missions in the past, and this wasn't any different.

After calming himself down, Ryan closed his eyes and started to ponder over his options.

While he wasn't like Ren and didn't have a chip inside of his brain, he was still a genius in his own right.

Several different scenarios popped up in his mind, and it wasn't long before a plan formulated inside of his mind.

'Hmm, I guess that could work.'

He opened his eyes. Unlike before, his gaze was calm, and no longer was he nervous like a few moments prior.

"Now then…"

Fiddling his tongue around his teeth, his tongue settled over the furthest tooth on his bottom right side, and his expression cringed a little.

Cr… Crack!

a low snapping sound, his tooth came undone and fell directly onto the ground. The

the tooth in front of him, Ryan moved his body forward a little, and he picked

use this?

had installed a mechanism within the tooth

Tik! Tik!

that time, the tooth had completely changed into a tiny black box. Tapping onto it

Ren's nagging wasn't

this for Ren, but he had also made one for himself and the others. He never would've thought he'd need to use it, but as luck would

stripped of all his possessions, he wasn't necessarily as hopeless as

Click!

"Easier than I thought."

items in his dimensional space and making sure that it didn't trigger the alarm, Ryan finally

"That was nerve-wracking."

as he was, he

go up in the air. Since he valued his life, during the process he found himself sweating more than he had ever

out,

and he pressed his hands against

they

was extremely important for his next course of action, and so he

wonder what this circuit does? Is this the one that connects to the mana

so, even though time was tight, Ryan spent the next couple of hours just staring blankly at the

mind, and he forced himself to understand everything that was going on

"Hmmm "

his body, he took out a small artifact from his dimensional

may not have stolen it from

since

a waste of

dimensional space, he placed it over the artifact

glow formed on the artifact in his

"This will do."

strength between him and Leopold, it was a given that he had to use a core to supplement

would never be able to make use of the artifact

'This way.'

within the darkness, and that was

and that was when he caught sight of two demons

'They look rather strong.'

him. Not as strong as Leopold, though.

'That's good.'

than him, then the situation would've been

over to place a small device over the top of it. The device's eight legs appeared to be clamping down on the

Cl..Click!

trying to make the least sound possible, the gadget activated, and the eight legs clamped harder

the legs emitted a minuscule red light from its base, and this light began to revolve around the

shortly after, and once the legs rotated twice,

like they

machine was designed to be extremely quiet and unnoticeable, Ryan was able to create a small opening on the door without being noticed

gave it a light knock, it would

the two guards from the opening above, and he knocked at the door once. He didn't bother ducking

Tok!

"Hu?"

of the two demons who were standing guard. Both of their heads snapped around to look

"What was that?"

"Hey, look."

Ryan whose eyes were fixed on

How is this