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!

and fell directly onto the ground. The process was rather

moved his body forward a little, and he picked the

have to use this? It's good that

the tooth that enabled him to access the contents without

Tik! Tik!

had completely changed into a tiny black box. Tapping onto it with

guess Ren's nagging wasn't

would've thought he'd need to use it, but as luck would have it, he indeed

was stripped of all his possessions, he wasn't necessarily

Click!

"Easier than I thought."

his ankle using one of the items in his dimensional space and making sure that it

"That was nerve-wracking."

as he was, he had

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

out,

pressed his hands against the ground, helping himself

they

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

Is this the one that

was tight, Ryan spent the next couple of hours just staring blankly at the

imprinted every circuit within his mind, and he forced himself to understand everything that was

"Hmmm "

artifact from his dimensional space. It was the

not have stolen it from

mattered since he had several spare

a waste of a

small core from his dimensional space, he placed it

glow formed on

"This will do."

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

be able to make use of the artifact if it weren't

'This way.'

he could now see better within the darkness, and that was when he noticed a small opening that was sealed

small gap above, and that was when he caught sight of

'They look rather strong.'

certainly stronger than him. Not as strong

'That's good.'

they been stronger than him, then the situation would've been a lot more

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

Cl..Click!

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

minuscule red light from its base, and this light began to revolve around the device in a clockwise

shortly after, and once the legs rotated twice,

they haven't

designed to be extremely quiet and unnoticeable, Ryan was able to create

gave it a light knock, it would fall,

opening above, and he knocked at the door once. He

Tok!

"Hu?"

was a soft knock, it was enough to immediately draw the attention of the two demons who were standing guard. Both

"What was that?"

"Hey, look."

soon took notice of Ryan whose eyes were fixed on

can move? How is this