CHAPTER 34: Snow Diamond and Obsidian Corridors

I opened my eyes slowly. The morning sun forced its way through the cracks in the shutters of the Golden Griffin. Dust danced in the streaks of light. My internal reactor worked soundlessly. After yesterday's destruction of the Amethyst Titan and closing the third ten, my body demanded a hard reset. I turned my head on the pillow. Shnee slept right next to me. She was cuddled into my side with possessive force. Her arm wrapped around my chest. She wore only a loose shirt and short sleeping pants borrowed from Elena.

The white-haired girl breathed steadily. Her face looked relaxed in the morning light. She lacked the murderous mask worn for strangers. "Snow diamond," I muttered, scratching my neck. There was no cheap lust in this. I looked at her with genuine admiration. Her facial features were perfect. Fair skin and white eyelashes looked carved by an artist. Our base gained someone of unique beauty. Shnee did not sleep soundly at all. A fraction of a second after my words, her body twitched. The corners of her mouth lifted in a pleased smile.

"Do you really think so, Dave?" she whispered softly, opening her eyelids. Her diamond eyes looked at me with sleepy laziness and massive devotion. "Pure logic speaks clearly, sweetheart," I answered with Brazen chill. I brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. "You are the most beautiful woman in this city. I am simply stating hard facts". I wasn't really lying, I assessed coldly in my thoughts. There was simply no one more beautiful than Shnee in all of Oakhaven. The rest of the crew was obviously nice, but Shnee's level of beauty was a completely different league.

Shnee was positively glowing. My approval was the best fuel for her. With a cute hum, she moved closer. She buried her face in my shoulder, drawing heat from my stable foundation. She absorbed the sense of security. Our relationship had long ceased to be just a pragmatic arrangement, becoming something much deeper and sincere. I gave her this comfort without a word of complaint. I yawned briefly, cracking my stiff neck. "Alright, end of lazing around," I threw calmly. "Time to get up. The dungeon won't utilize itself. Today we check what this place will throw at us on the fourth ten".

Shnee sighed quietly, but obediently peeled herself off me. I got up from the mattress. I threw a shirt and a coat over my shoulders. We went downstairs on the creaking steps. The main room was bustling with life. Elena was placing steaming plates on the table. Luthia was reviewing parchments from Silas in the corner. The smell of roasted meat immediately put my weaves on alert. I ate a solid portion in silence, loading calories. The girls exchanged quiet remarks. The family functioned flawlessly. "Ready?" I asked Shnee, putting the cup on the counter.

The elf fastened her uniform buckle. The rapier rested at her belt. The girl's face became the icy mask of a professional again. She nodded briefly. We walked out of the Griffin straight into the crisp air of Oakhaven. The fourth ten was waiting. The Sapphire Prism spat us out with a quiet hiss onto the thirty-first floor. The difference was drastic. Shining quartzes and purple amethysts disappeared completely. They were replaced by smooth corridors formed of pitch-black obsidian. Light struggled to pierce through this gloom. Our steps carried a hollow echo on the flat floor.

I walked at a slow pace with my hands shoved deep into my coat pockets. Shnee moved right next to me. Her sharp eyes scanned the black walls. A metallic grind reached us from around the corner. A patrol emerged from the dark. Animated plate armors. They had no meat in them. It was only rusted sheet metal hiding the pale light of cloudy cores. They moved stiffly with massive weight. They wielded two-handed swords in empty gauntlets. Shnee immediately shot forward. Raw frost burst from her rapier. Extreme cold hit the first armors. It covered them with a layer of frost. The elf executed a series of lightning-fast thrusts. Her blade merely slid over the old iron with a loud clink. The armors were too stiff for cold and thin steel to dismantle them quickly.

I stopped. I raised my left hand. I grabbed my chin with my hand and supported my elbow with my right arm. I thought in silence, observing this resistance of matter. On pure logic, hitting the thickest sheet metal was a plain waste of calories. You had to hit the joints. But before I could give Shnee the appropriate order, the dungeon threw a hidden card on the table. From the black ceiling right above the elf's head, a shadow detached soundlessly. This was no slow armor. This was an elite assassin-construct. It fell perfectly into her blind spot. It aimed straight at her back. A rusty blade flashed in its hands, diving with murderous momentum straight at Shnee's exposed neck.

My mind registered this in a fraction of a second. I was too far away to block this blow with my own body. Firing a wide wave of pure force from this distance would mercilessly crush the elf as well. It was a no-win situation for an ordinary seeker. But I did not intend to let the place touch my First Pillar. My internal instinct to protect the pack struck with unprecedented fury. The absolute need to protect the family stood against the laws of physics restricting me. My spiritual core violently broke its limits, forcing the soul to drop another blockade, which personified the pure Moment of the Anvil. The raw KAI drive poured out of my guts.

I did not draw my weapon. I opened my eyes, raised my right hand, and pointed my index finger at that point. I compressed a microscopic charge of pure physical force on my fingertip. I flicked. The invisible bullet of raw force shot out with a speed that tore the air. It hit with surgical precision straight into a rusty rivet. A sharp crack resounded. The elite armor simply exploded from the inside, mere millimeters from Shnee's head. Thick plates, the helmet, and the rusty blade fell apart into hundreds of harmless pieces. They fell to the black floor with a loud rustle. The scrap showered the shoulders of the shocked elf.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Shnee twitched violently, turning around. She looked at the scrap metal lying at her feet, and then at my outstretched hand. Pure terror mixed with reverent gratitude painted her diamond eyes. She understood how close she was to losing her head. I lowered my hand with Brazen chill. The new sense integrated perfectly with my mind. "Weak joints," I threw calmly, deliberately avoiding shouting any theatrical names for my new attack. "Hitting the thickest armor is a waste of time. Now I see every structural flaw of theirs clearly. Leave the ice, Shnee. Time for pure utilization".

I opened the pores in my hands. Thick Sapphire Slime flowed out. I coated my hands with it and moved straight into the middle of the iron formation. Having active Yomi, the fight ceased to be any challenge. I flawlessly caught rusty hinges, damaged rivets, and abrasions on the plates. I entered these cans like a ram. I tore their armors with my bare hands with a deafening grind of breaking metal. Shnee smoothly used every breach I created, cutting and freezing their pale cores from the inside.

I lowered my hand. I fell into the middle of the iron formation with Brazen chill. Sapphire Slime covered my forearms and hands with an impenetrable layer. Instead of casting spells, I used pure physics and butcher's precision. I bypassed the massive sword of the first construct. Yomi showed me exactly where its armor was barely held together. I drove my slime-coated fingers right under the rusty pauldron. I jerked down with raw force. The thick metal cracked with a grinding roar, completely tearing off the steel arm of the armor. The breach exposed the pulsating core inside.

I didn't even have to turn around. Shnee smoothly used the gap in the monster's guard. Her rapier whistled in the air, entering smoothly into the open slit. Raw frost burst from the blade. Extreme cold hit straight into the core. The vibrations from the impact shattered the shivering construct from the inside. Empty plates crumbled to the floor with a muffled clink. "Next," I threw coldly, walking forward at a leisurely pace. This was not a fight. It was a murderous marathon. We broke through consecutive levels with inhuman efficiency. Thirty-second, thirty-fifth, thirty-eighth floor. The black corridors narrowed and widened. The animated armors became increasingly massive, wielding heavier weapons. But with Yomi each of them was just a walking pile of scrap with structural errors.

Our cooperation reached a level of flawless symbiosis. I caught weak points, broke joints, tore rusty hinges and crushed connections with my bare hands. I opened these iron cans, taking their covers off. Shnee entered the gaps with predatory grace, cutting and freezing everything from the inside. When we finally reached the end of the thirty-ninth floor, my clothing was covered with rusty dust. My breath remained completely steady. I scooped the matte cores into the bottomless pouch, lazily brushing the dirt off my hands.

The boss chamber was a gigantic arena made of black obsidian. Right in its center, in a circle of blue torches, kneeled the main guard. It was a six-armed monster of cast iron. In each hand, it held a massive blade. As soon as we crossed the threshold, his internal weaves flared with aggressive purple. The construct rose with a heavy grate, shaking the black walls. The boss immediately went on the offensive, crushing the obsidian plates under his feet. The beast swung all six arms at once, creating a spinning circle of death that pushed straight at our position. The blades cut the air with a deafening whistle.

Shnee tried to flank him from the side to draw his attention, but her attacks were useless. She had to jump back, forced into continuous dodges by this murderous grinder. The thick armor of the monster combined with the spinning swords created an impenetrable barrier. I stopped in place with Brazen chill. I raised my left hand, grabbed my chin, and supported my elbow with my right arm. I thought in silence, coldly analyzing the situation on pure logic. Pushing bare hands blindly into this steel vortex meant getting sliced into ribbons. But every pumped machine had its construction flaws.

Instead of relying on the dim light of the cave, I activated my new sense. With my eyes closed, I used Yomi. My mind immediately caught the vibrations of the air, the brutal tension of the metal sheets, and the flow of purple mana inside the colossus with surgical precision. I found a gap. I noticed that the sheer weight of the swords and the centrifugal force with each upward swing forced a minimal loosening of the structure. When the boss raised his six arms, the rusted plates on his chest slid apart for a fraction of a second, exposing a pulsating core.

I lowered my hand from my chin. A predatory smile crept onto my lips. I yawned briefly, cracking my stiff neck and slipping my hands into my coat pockets. "Stay back, Shnee," I threw calmly, with a murderous satisfaction flashing in my sapphire eyes. "This bastard belongs to me".

The six-armed colossus pushed forward. I did not step back. I opened the valves in my right forearm. Sapphire Slime poured out with a quiet hiss, instantly coating my fist and hardening to the density of solid diamond. I pumped a massive charge of pure kinetic force into this formation, seasoning it with a spark of raw Lightning from my innate arsenal.

I waited for that one, localized fraction of a second. When the iron beast took the ultimate upward swing with all six arms at once, I took a fluid step forward. I entered right into the middle of his destructive grinder. The blades missed my shoulders by literal millimeters. The rusted plates on his chest slid apart under the momentum, exposing the pulsating core.

"Bad stance, tin can," I muttered, pointing out his error on pure logic.

I threw a powerful punch. My sapphire fist drove straight into the exposed gap. The collision of compressed kinetic force with the inside of the monster produced a hollow roar. Instead of piercing him through, I let the raw charge detonate right in the tight center of his body.

The six-armed guard literally exploded from the inside. Thick iron, gears, and metal sheets shot in all directions, showering the entire arena in a roaring rain of scrap. I extended my hand and smoothly caught the gigantic core falling from the smoke cloud. The Sapphire Slime hissed and absorbed back under my skin, cleaning my hand. I dusted off my shoulder, tossing the heavy loot with predatory satisfaction.

Shnee sheathed her rapier and approached me with an admiring smile, witnessing this physical execution.

"Fourth ten closed," I threw calmly, dropping the stone into the bottomless pouch. "We are returning to the base. Time to load carbohydrates".