Chapter 18: Heading up the hill

"Finally..." Ren murmured, a subtle tilt of his lips signaling his quiet satisfaction.

"Hey! Ren, what are you doing back there?!" Miku yelled, waving her arm frantically from ahead. "Come on, hurry up!"

The rest of the group stood at the base of the steep incline, waiting to begin their ascent up the mountain.

Ren turned his head and gave a single nod.

As the others started up the trail, Ren lagged behind slightly. Moving with quiet, practiced efficiency, he crouched every few paces to touch the glowing purple crystal cores scattered along the ground—a vital resource visible to him alone.

[System Alert: C-Rank Aberrant Core successfully obtained.]

The mechanical ping chimed eight consecutive times in his mind as he salvaged core after core. He knew this salvage mechanic would prove vital for building his asset pool and crafting constructs later on. Every monster core gathered was essentially fuel for his future automated squad.

However, as his fingers brushed the ninth core lying in the ash, the system interface flashed a cold, transparent warning right before his eyes:

[Inventory full.]

[Please upgrade System Level to expand inventory capacity.]

Ren let out a short, irritated exhale, his shoulders dropping.

’Shit. Of course there’s a cap,’ he thought, staring at the dozens of glowing purple cores left behind in the dirt.

"What a complete waste..." he muttered under his breath, dragging his feet as he hurried to close the distance with his companions who were already climbing ahead.

’System, display host status,’ he commanded silently while following the group up the rocky slope.

[Host Status]

[Level 20]

’Looks like leveling up scales with active synthesis tasks and high-density material processing,’ he reasoned, remembering the massive scrap heap deconstruction he performed earlier.

’The real problem right now is the Nyx Seal threshold. I just need it to reset before doing anything drastic or taking unnecessary risks.’

[NYX SEAL: 83% (RESETS EVERY 48 HOURS) Time until reset: 21:02:30]

[⚠️ FATAL DANGER DETECTED ⚠️]

Ren’s gaze darkened as he stared at the red warning text hovering in his field of vision. ’Great. So I have to survive another twenty-one hours, two minutes, and thirty seconds in this hellhole.’

He ran a hand over his face, clearing his head of the rising anxiety.

"I just hope I make it out of this place alive," he whispered to himself, casting a brief glance up at the ominous crimson moon hanging over the sharp ridge of the peak.

Suddenly, a low rumble vibrated through the earth beneath his boots. Loose gravel skittered past his feet, followed immediately by a shower of smaller stones tumbling down from the crest. Ren’s eyes narrowed, locking onto the top of the incline. A massive, rounded boulder detached from the cliff face above, gathering terrifying momentum as it rolled directly down their narrow climbing path.

"Shit... this is bad!" Ren yelled.

The mountain shook violently beneath them. Reika, Miku, Ryu, and Liora snapped their heads up toward the summit, their faces instantly sharpening as the terrain turned hostile.

"Out of the way! Move, move, move!" Miku shouted in a panic, scrambling backward down the slope.

The heavy boulder tore down the narrow track, crushing rock shelves and pulverizing scrub brush in its wake. It barreled down like a runaway freight train, cutting straight through their formation and forcing everyone to throw themselves off the main path.

Ren threw his body to the side, tumbling hard across the jagged soil. The massive rock thundered past, clearing the treeline below and slamming directly into the towering trees with a deafening impact, snapping thick trunks like toothpicks before coming to a complete rest.

Ren lay flat on his back in the dirt, breathing heavily, his hands scraped and raw from the abrupt fall.

’Damn it... I almost got crushed.’

The near-miss dragged up bitter, buried memories of his very first day in this world—the scent of corroding steel, burning flesh, and the colossal monster that had severed his leg. If the system hadn’t intervened at the final second to stitch his life back together, his story would have ended right there on the cold ground.

"Is everyone okay...?" Reika gasped, pushing herself up from the dirt while clutching her side.

"What the hell is going on up there?" Ryu growled, dusting the thick grit off his leather vambraces.

Ryu stepped over and extended a heavy, calloused hand to help Ren up. Ren grabbed it and pulled himself upright.

"Thanks," Ren said simply, brushing off his dark shirt with quick, sharp strokes.

Before anyone could take another step or assess their injuries, a colossal shadow blanketed the trail above them.

Something massive was hurled directly over the cliff edge from the summit, tumbling through the sky at a neck-breaking speed.

The local air pressure dropped instantly as the shape descended straight toward their location.

"Clear out!" Liora barked, springing backward into a low vault.

The team scattered in four different directions just as the projectile smashed into the incline.

BOOM!

The impact shockwave rippled through the bedrock, throwing everyone off their feet. A dense plume of dust and pulverized rock blasted outward, carving a massive crater into the center of the path.

Pinned inside the fresh crater lay a sprawling, mutated behemoth. Dozens of glowing, ethereal blue blades were driven straight through its torso and limbs, locking it permanently to the rock face like a pinned insect.

Ren slammed his fist against the earth, his remaining patience completely snapping. "Are you kidding me?! Is there an endless supply of these disasters?!"

The group cautiously stepped up to the edge of the smoking crater, peering through the settling dust.

"Wait... aren’t those Princess Evelyn’s Sky Blades?" Reika noted, pointing at the translucent, pulsing hilts embedded in the beast’s hide.

"They are," Miku confirmed, her face hardening as she glanced up toward the peak.

"Which means Princess Evelyn is directly above us right now," Ryu added, his hand gripping his sword hilt tight.

"What are you waiting for? Let’s go!" Liora commanded, breaking into a steep climb up the ridge.

Reika, Miku, and Ryu immediately gave chase, their boots kicking up clouds of dust as they sprinted toward the summit, leaving Ren standing alone behind them.

Ren stood at the edge of the crater, staring blankly at the dirt.

"Ah, damn it all..."

He dragged both hands violently through his black hair, clutching at his scalp as he took a long, ragged breath to ground himself.

"Elian... get it together, man. Keep your sanity intact," he muttered under his breath, pulling at his straight locks.

He was thoroughly exhausted. The sheer density of threats since arriving in this reality was grinding his mind down to a razor edge. Transmigration wasn’t some grand, romantic adventure—it was an endless exercise in chaotic crisis management. Even with a hyper-advanced system interface, every action carried a penalty, an inventory cap, or a fatal risk.

He straightened his hair back out with a deliberate, trembling breath, slowly releasing the tension locked in his chest.

’If I had just turned down that stupid pyramid construction contract back on Earth... if I hadn’t let my own damn curiosity pull me toward that purple crystal in the excavation site... I’d still be sitting in my apartment, sleeping soundly, working a normal job as an architect.’

He missed the quiet, predictable safety of his old life.

’Doesn’t matter now. What’s done is done.’

Survival was the only currency that meant anything here. He had to adapt to this irrational, violent world whether he liked it or not.

"Haaa..."

"Alright, Elian. Take a breath and roll with it," he whispered, offering a faint, dry smirk to the empty air. "Everything is going to be just fine."

It was a blatant lie, but it was the only thing keeping his feet moving forward in a world that was anything but fine.

Looking up the steep incline, he noticed his companions were already fifty yards ahead, their silhouettes disappearing into the fog.

"Man, they run fast..." Ren sighed, his legs feeling heavy as he broke into a full sprint.

"Hey! Wait up!" Ren yelled, chasing after his group as they rushed toward the high plateau above.