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 process was

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

I'd have to use this? It's

sealed, he had installed a mechanism within the tooth that enabled him to access the

Tik! Tik!

took him about twenty seconds, and within that time, the tooth had completely changed into a tiny black box. Tapping onto it with his tongue, Ryan was

Ren's nagging wasn't

never would've thought he'd need to use it, but as luck

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

Click!

"Easier than I thought."

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

"That was nerve-wracking."

he was, he had been nervous

would go up in the air. Since he valued his life, during the process he found

everything worked out,

he pressed his hands against the

they designed the

the mechanism behind it was extremely important for his next course of action, and so he spared no

circuit does? Is this the one that connects to the mana disruptor, or is

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

every circuit within his mind, and he forced himself to understand everything that was going on inside of the

"Hmmm "

he took out a small artifact from his dimensional space. It was the

or may not have stolen it

it mattered since he had

a waste of

core from his dimensional space, he

formed on the artifact in

"This will do."

him and Leopold, it 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

'This way.'

darkness, and that was when he noticed a small opening that was sealed by an

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

'They look rather strong.'

certainly stronger than him. Not as strong as Leopold,

'That's good.'

the

focus to the 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 appeared to be clamping down on the metallic door

Cl..Click!

sound possible, the gadget activated, and the eight legs clamped

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

formed on the iron door shortly after, and once the legs rotated twice,

they

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

gave it a light knock, it would fall, and an opening would

above, and he knocked at the door once. He didn't bother ducking down and just stared at

Tok!

"Hu?"

it was enough to immediately draw the attention of the two demons who

"What was that?"

"Hey, look."

notice of Ryan whose eyes were fixed on the

move? How is this