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!

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

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

use this? It's

sealed, he had installed a mechanism within the tooth that

Tik! Tik!

that time, the tooth had completely changed into a tiny black box. Tapping onto it with his tongue, Ryan was able

Ren's

would've thought he'd need to use it, but

his main dimensional space was taken and he was stripped of all his possessions, he wasn't

Click!

"Easier than I thought."

disabling the bracelet that was on his ankle using one of the items in his dimensional space and making sure that it didn't trigger the alarm,

"That was nerve-wracking."

composed as he was, he had been nervous

he valued his life, during the process he found himself sweating more than he had ever done during an

worked out, and

mattered the most, and he pressed his hands

wonder how they designed the

was extremely important for his next course of action, and so he spared no second to study

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

the next couple of hours just staring blankly at

forced himself to understand everything that was going on inside of

"Hmmm "

a small artifact from his dimensional

may not

it mattered since

waste of a

from his dimensional space, he

on

"This will do."

was a given that he had to use a core to supplement the

would never be able to make use of the artifact if it weren't for the

'This way.'

could now see better within the darkness, and that was when

carefully, Ryan peaked through the small gap above, and that was when he caught sight of two demons

'They look rather strong.'

Not as strong as Leopold, though. He could at least

'That's good.'

been stronger than him, then the

while sticking his tongue out and bent over to place a small device over the top of it. The device's

Cl..Click!

the buttons and trying to make the least sound possible, the gadget activated, and

and this light began to revolve around the device in a

small red circle formed on the iron door shortly after, and once the legs

they

designed to be extremely quiet and unnoticeable, Ryan was able to create a small opening on

knock, it would fall, and an opening would

looked toward the two guards from the opening above, and he knocked at the door once. He didn't bother ducking down and just stared at them

Tok!

"Hu?"

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

"What was that?"

"Hey, look."

soon took notice of Ryan whose eyes were fixed

can move? How is this possible? Did