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!

came undone and fell directly onto the ground. The process was rather quick, but it still hurt a

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

to use

had installed a mechanism within the tooth that enabled him to access the contents without the need to use

Tik! Tik!

into a tiny black box. Tapping onto it with

guess Ren's nagging wasn't

thought he'd need to use it, but as luck would have it, he indeed found himself in

space was taken and he was stripped of all

Click!

"Easier than I thought."

his dimensional space and making sure that it didn't trigger

"That was nerve-wracking."

composed as he was, he had

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

out,

was what mattered the most, and he pressed his

wonder how they designed the

it. He understood that knowing the mechanism behind it was extremely important for his next course of action, and so he spared

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

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

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

"Hmmm "

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

not have stolen it

mattered since he had several spare

waste of a

his dimensional space, he placed it over the artifact and activated

glow formed on the artifact

"This will do."

that he had to use a core to supplement the use

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

'This way.'

now see better within the darkness, and that was when he noticed

and that was

'They look rather strong.'

Not as strong as Leopold, though. He could at

'That's good.'

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

the top of it. The device's eight legs appeared to be clamping down on the metallic door in a manner that was eerily

Cl..Click!

least sound possible, the gadget

from its base, and this light began

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

like they haven't

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

gave it a light knock, it would fall, and

up, he 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 from

Tok!

"Hu?"

was a soft knock, it was enough to immediately draw the attention of the two demons who were standing guard. Both of their heads snapped around to look in

"What was that?"

"Hey, look."

notice of Ryan whose eyes were fixed

is this possible? Did