‘Haha, it looks like I hit the jackpot!’ Simon laughed as he prepared to enter the passageway.

His instincts were telling him that this passageway was somewhat dangerous - even to him. Naturally, if even he felt threatened by this place, it could only mean one thing... That it was the most dangerous, and subsequently, the most rewarding part of this ruin!

And so, after a short while, Simon began his cautious descent into the dark hole…

Clank, clank!

The sound of his shoes impacting the metal ladder soon reverberated inside the tunnel...

The walls were initially made of metal, but quickly reverted to stone. Meanwhile, the looming scent and aura that came from within this corridor became increasingly pronounced as he continued downwards.

Soon, the light that he conjured was having less and less of an effect; despite Simon’s best efforts, the light was only able to luminate a radius of 5 meters around him.

‘This is actually pretty intense...’ he thought, slightly startled

At this point, even Simon was getting a sense of foreboding. After all, though there was nothing noteworthy so far, his instincts were screaming at him that this was a dangerous place.

Still, he fearlessly continued downwards...

After climbing down for a while, the tunnel finally widened out to a large cavern.

He couldn’t actually see far enough to tell that this was a large cavern, but he could nonetheless tell that it was a large cavern due to the way that sound reverberated.

Plop!

After jumping downwards, he landed on the moist cavern floor before looking around.

Surrounding Simon, there was only a dense shroud of darkness; even when his light shone within the cave, the darkness would completely obscure his vision past ten meters.

Meanwhile, it was eerily silent; only the sound of dripping water and the echoes of his footsteps could be heard.

Simon shook his head before beginning to navigate through the cave. He wasn’t too worried about his situation. However, he nonetheless was wary as he explored the cavern, navigating with the help of his sharp senses.

Very soon, he saw several sets of dusty skeletons that crumbled with a single touch; he wasn’t exactly surprised to see such a scene.

And so, he trudged on into the many dark passageways of the cave system.

…

Eventually…

Boom!

A skeleton with eerie green flames within its eye sockets was blasted to dust by a blue streak of light.

Just a moment later, a young man walked up to where the skeleton once was and looted its body.

Simon had been exploring for a long while - it must have been hours!

This cave system was incredibly complex and spanned many kilometers... Some pathways would lead to dead ends, while others would loop around to previously traversed paths as well.

On the way, he had also seen many valuable ores that were exceedingly rare such as Baleful Blood Jade, Blue Corpse Amethyst, and other materials of a sinister nature. These resources were typically found around graveyards and battlefields in his past life, which made sense considering the circumstances in this cave.

Still, his journey was not completely dull. Along with the ores, he came across a myriad of traps and evil spirits that had to be avoided as well.

They ranged from pitfalls, to assaults by mummies or undead beasts. Thankfully, they were no problem for him at all. These traps were clearly intended for weaker life forms; against an experienced mage like him, they were naturally insignificant.

But other than that, he had also discovered signs of another event in this time...

There were sizable and deep scratches all over the walls that were meters in length, as well as broken pieces of armor lining the old and dusty skeletons. Unless one was a moron, one would know what this meant.

Naturally, a mighty battle had occurred a long time ago in this very cavern!

Moreover, he could tell that it was no small-scale skirmish. Rather, it was a battlefield in which thousands of warriors and mages fought!

The most likely situation was that an army had come down to fight some mysterious beast. Whether they succeeded or not was a mystery, but it was quite clear that this beast was extremely powerful. To withstand an army of mighty warriors and mages… A beast of that strength was bound to be extraordinary.

Meanwhile, most artifacts in this underground battlefield - or graveyard, rather, were beyond broken, with some basically being no more than a pile of dust. However, a few highly damaged artifacts still lay scattered about on the floor of the cavern and within traps.

In total, including the artifacts he had obtained above ground, the F tier artifacts in his belonging were nearing thirty. He had not gotten any more E tier artifacts in this time but thankfully, one of the corpses generously contained a monster core, which more than made up for his bad luck with finding E tier artifacts.

And though the monster core was of a relatively poor quality it was nonetheless, a bonafide mana core, which was precisely what he needed! And so, along with the ancient shards that came with his artifacts, he had already fulfilled his main objectives for this ruin raid.

After checking the skeleton’s belongings and finding nothing, Simon looked up and found himself standing in front of an intersection of three paths.

And as he stood, gazing at the three paths, he was lost in thought; this was the deepest part of the caverns, and the result of his hard work in navigating.

From one of the paths, a relatively weak aura was leaking out. From the next, a considerably stronger aura was emanating from within and from the last, an unbearably strong and horrifying aura was leaking out… one strong enough to even slightly shake his soul!

“Mm, this must be the final boss. I’ll go and investigate it first.” Simon concluded solemnly.

Indeed, these three corridors were where the auras that he had initially sensed came from. After a moment of hesitation, he eventually decided to enter the third corridor...

Crunch. Crunch.

For a while, he walked atop piles of dusty bones, until the tunnel finally opened up to a massive room.

Inside this room, the entire floor consisted of ancient, dried up bones, and several piles of dust, representing where artifacts once laid. Moreover, a fierce and obstinate aura of bloodlust immediately pervaded his entire body as he set his foot within the room.

Upon stepping into the room, Simon inhaled sharply.

‘This is the real deal. The aura here is truly fierce!’

The aura emanating from this part of the cave was actually strong enough to momentarily instill a few disturbing thoughts into his mind.

Even if it were for a mere moment… That was still impressive. After all, his soul had the strength of a sixth star core mage. If god forbid, a mage with a singular star core switched places with him for just an instant…

The scene that would play out would not be pretty!

‘What the hell man? Is this really just an F tier ruin?!’ he thought puzzledly with a hint of trepidation.

Boom!

Suddenly, the room lit up from everywhere at once, momentarily stunning Simon, who’s eyes had long since adjusted to the dark.

When he regained his bearings, a horrifying figure that was several times the height of man was revealed to him.

It was a huge muscular wolf, with an incredibly menacing aura and bloodied, crimson fur!

Ding!

[New Objective: Defeat the Corrupted Celestial Sky Wolf]

The wolf's eyes suddenly glowed an eerie red, and it mechanically started moving forwards.

Boom!

Boom!

With every step of its two four legs, the ground shook, and plumes of dust and metal were thrown asunder!

‘This…!’ Witnessing this scene, Simon’s expression grew incredibly solemn.

‘This is a divine and legendary beast from ancient times!’

Without wasting a single moment, Simon closed his eyes and called upon a certain technique…

Woosh!

Within seconds, at an easily inhuman speed, Simon suddenly dashed towards the beast, and a faint green outline could now be seen around him. It looked somewhat like a divine tree.

The wolf who was still awakening, was nonetheless, not one to be caught off guard. It suddenly growled and pounced onto Simon, rapidly busting into motion! Like two unstoppable forces, both man and beast soon collided into the other with incomparable ferocity.

BOOOM!

ROAR!

The wolf was sent staggering back, roaring out in pain, while Simon himself was launched away.

Only upon very nearly colliding with the wall did he manage to recover with a backflip, landing lightly on the ground.

‘F*ck, this beast may not be as strong as the real thing, but it certainly is going to be hard to best!’ Simon cursed inwardly, wiping blood from his mouth as he gazed cautiously at the menacing wolf in front of him.

Meanwhile, the Corrupted Celestial Sky Wolf similarly stared back at Simon with a cautious and fierce gaze.

For the first time since transmigrating, Simon had actually gotten injured! This came as somewhat of a surprise to him.

But the beast was also facing similar feelings of bewilderment. In its lifetime of countless slaughters, it had never met a human who could take it head on and survive. Naturally, it was extremely wary as well.

By now, Simon undoubtedly realized that he was in a deadly situation; if he made a single mistake, he could very well die with all of his ambitions forever unaccomplished.

With this in mind, he solemnly burst into action, carrying out a set of unfathomable movements whilst conjuring the mana within his body…

This set of movements may not have looked all too difficult to pull off. But in reality, it was unbearably draining to perform. Every action was more difficult to accomplish than lifting a massive boulder, but he nonetheless completed them with fluidity and haste.

Meanwhile, the wolf unhesitatingly darted towards Simon, quickly becoming a golden blur and roaring angrily.

ROAR!

The wolf was no fool and it clearly had experience with fighting mages as it did not give Simon much of an opportunity to cast his spell.

Woosh!

The muscular and majestic beast abruptly dashed towards Simon as his spell slowly neared completion.

‘F*ck! Not like this!’ Simon hurriedly executed the required movements with unparalleled vigor, pushing his body and mind to their very limits to increase the rate of the spell being cast.

If the wolf were to reach him before the spell was cast… Then he would surely be doomed! On the other hand, if he were to complete the spell in time… his victory would be assured!

It was a race against time.

Right as the final tendrils of energy gathered in between Simon’s palms, the Celestial Sky Wolf was just on the verge of reaching Simon.

Wooosh!

But in due time, he finally managed to launch an incomparably powerful beam of energy from both arms!

On one side, a fiery red. The other a frosty blue. These two beams of energy released from his arms, and manifested into illusory dragons!

...

In truth, the magic that Simon was using up until now was mere child’s play.

One could indeed shoot a stone through another’s head. However, that was only if the power difference was great enough; in a true fight between mages, shooting mere stones would never suffice.

On the other hand, what truly gives magical spells power are the extent of which they could be imagined, comprehended, and perceived!

After all, in Simon’s old world, science was not a thing. Since that was the case, then how did advanced magic exist? The answer was obvious: It wasn’t nearly as simple as comprehension.

When one summoned fire to kill, they did not think of atoms in chemical reaction; no! One would think of the essence of flame, the effects that it would have, and the intent which they imbue it with!

Sure, one could summon a flame in a very scientific matter. But such a flame would only act like a regular flame. One should not underestimate mana; by using magic, one could twist the very laws of the world!

This was the nature of a mage! A defiant and dauntless being who could defy the heavens.

Therefore, though knowledge of how flames occur would certainly be beneficial, it is not what ultimately is the most important when casting spells...

It just so happens that certain emotions, methods of visualizations, and environments are especially compatible with certain spells, and can subsequently, dramatically increase the power of said magic.

Therefore, instead of throwing around stones like apes, mages over many generations have compounded their knowledge to form techniques which were recorded in manuals. The purpose that these manuals served was to pass down manifestations, perspectives, and other methods of that nature that were capable of increasing the strength of spells!

These manuals provided key insights to things such as mythical beasts and forces of nature, which one could utilize their understanding of to multiply their magical prowess manyfold!

Truly great magic had to have form and emotion to have power. After all, formless and emotionless magic was like a scattered unit of soldiers without morale. Without a general to lead - without a structure to act along with, and without a bright future in sight, the soldiers would naturally be quite meaningless and weak.

Similarly, magic without intent... without structure... would be much weaker than magic with structure and purpose!

The spiral dragons, which contained years of Simon’s unrelenting studies to comprehend…

Containing the power of his will of steel - tempered by countless tribulations…

Backed by the sheer power of mana...

All these factors coalesced into this singular, beautifully made attack!

By now, the wolf simply had too much forward momentum to dodge, so it had no choice but to charge forwards, right into the maws of the twin dragons…

Roar!

Both beast and manifestation roared as they neared the other.

Meanwhile, the illusory pair of dragons intertwined, their energies mixing in a very specific manner - resulting in the power of the attack multiplying manyfold!

Woosh!

For a moment, the world itself seemed to pause to appreciate the profundity of the dragons, before carrying out their wills…

Even the wolf wore a strange expression of bliss and relief, in the face of this attack.

BOOOOM!

The wolf was instantly knocked away like a ragdoll. In an instant, most of its bones were broken, and its organs crushed!

Just a moment later, it collided with the cave’s wall with a bang and burst in a morbid display of blood and flesh.

Ding!

[Cleared the F-Tier Ruin. Completion Rate: A tier. Rewarding 1x [Ruin Deed] (Deed), 1x [Blood Jungle] (Biome Blueprint), and 1000x ancient shards. Please evacuate within one hour]

Simon promptly collapsed to the ground and fell to his knees, his complexion incomparably pale.

‘F*ck, that was certainly pushing it... But it is done!’