I guess I should check the group chat now. I’ve been ignoring it for a while. Cain thought while the party gathered around him.

—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (31ms)

Rex: Ayo, how the heck did you do that?

Rex: Cain…?

Rex: Mfer…

Rex: Oi

Dresil: Relax, he’s busy acting cool rn.

Bob: Be patient. Keep in mind that the group chat occurs within milliseconds.

Cain: I’m here now, what’s up?

Rex: Finally…

Cain: Want more work?

Rex: Nope, I take that back.

Cain: Continue.

Rex: ahem, anyways… How did you do that flip after the punch? Thought you never had fighting experience.

Cain: Ye, I don’t. I just followed the flow and momentum remaining after the punch.

Cain: Since the movement of my arm occurred in an arc, roughly, I was able to curl my body following said arc then change it some to land on the drake’s back.

Cain: I had to use my Mana Zone to position my landing though.

Rex: I see… sort of.

Dresil: oof, almost.

Bob: Indeed.

Rex: :Pain:

--------------------------

“Damn, dude! That was sick!” Jared rushed over and complemented Cain. Jacob and Catherine followed shortly after. Veronica had to push Victoria from the back to speed her up since she walked at a snail’s pace towards Cain, lost in her thoughts. Apart from the injuries Jacob sustained, the party was relatively unharmed.

“Ay, thanks. Ah, Victoria, are you okay?” Cain asked her once Veronica had successfully rushed her to join the semi circle formed around Cain and the headless drake. “Hm? Ah, yes, I’m okay. Why?” Victoria replied, Cain’s voice jarring her back to reality.

“Nothing much. I was just worried since I used some of my mana to suppress the drake and you’re the one with the lowest circle count here.” Victoria and Catherine picked up on the tiny details left within Cain’s statement, “some of my mana.” This sent both of them into a flurry of thoughts, trying to comprehend what he meant. Veronica saw Victoria's eyes slightly fog as she stared off into the distance and sighed.

Cain slapped the roof back of the drake, in a reference to a meme. The drake’s body shifted just enough for it to fall over on its side, interrupting Cain who was about to speak. Jacob, Veronica, and Jared instantly tensed up, hands hovering over their weapons. They watched the lifeless body issue sparks to the floor, expecting it to attack at any moment.

“A-anyways… How should we divide the loot? There appears to be a lot of orichalcum and mithril in this bad boi.” Cain attempted to recover the situation, his voice somewhat relaxing their nerves. The fall snapped Catherine out of her thoughts, but she remained unable to react much due to the exhaustion of having cast too many spells. Victoria came around after Cain spoke.

“Well… We usually divide it based on contribution or who needs the equipment. Since you intervened, you should get all of the loot.” Victoria stated after a brief pause, her words spread a solemn atmosphere amongst the huddle.

“Hm… Nah, I’ll just take the head and the body. You guys can take the tail since you tore it off with your own efforts. That in itself is already a great accomplishment since this was originally something you weren’t able to handle. The technological gap was unfortunately too big.” Cain’s delegation erased the brief, solemn air. A glint of greed and excitement could be seen in everyone’s eyes, completely overshadowing what Cain said at the end.

His words reminded Catherine of something; she fidgeted slightly, trying to find the right moment to speak up. Cain looked directly at her, expecting something to be said. A silent stare down occurred for a few minutes instead. “Why did you stop my lightning before you intervened?” Catherine finally asked while averting her eyes from Cain’s.

Jared watched the staredown with interest, while Veronica eyed Catherine with suspicion. Victoria treated Jacob on the side, both of them were too preoccupied to notice what happened. Victoria’s spells casted during the fight to heal Jacob could hardly be considered emergency treatment, thus she needed to take the time to properly heal him to prevent future problems.

Cain let them do what they needed and decided to only interfere if something went wrong. Although, this decision was primarily decided because he wanted to witness healing through holy magic. He stared at the two with all functions of his eyes enabled, observing the intricacies and details. He could only observe the latter part of the process due to the staredown with Catherine though.

“The drake uses any electricity to charge itself and fight longer. If you shot enough at it, it wouldn’t be in its weakened state anymore.” Cain said, gazing at Jacob’s arms from the first syllable he spoke. “Electricity?” Catherine asked while Jared paced around some. “That thing was weakened!?” He shook his hands as he spoke, slightly agitated.

“Lightning. Yep, it could only last for about 23 or so minutes then it would have shut off, er, died. Its limited power presumably stopped it from using its most powerful functions as well.” Cain explained as Victoria and Jacob rejoined the huddle. “You can understand what it said?” Victoria asked once she completed the semi-circle.

“Nah. The spirit king translated it for me.” Cain pointed to the darkened flame that ran up his left arm. Victoria nodded, once again lost in her thoughts. “Cain, can you help us store the tail? Unfortunately there isn’t enough space in our storage ring.” Jacob requested Cain, who then glanced at Catherine. “Same here.” She replied while shaking her head.

“Yep. I’ll link the controls to the magic circle I put on the back of your hand about a week ago.” Cain stated. He used SRI to create a storage dimension for his share of the drake and for the tail. He linked the controls to Jacob’s magic circle and used his tag for dual-authentication.

—Dms: Cain and Bob— (3006ms)

Cain: Can you check my work on Jacob’s dimension and the link?

Bob: Understood.

Bob: Some mistakes, not many though, all of them were fixed. I exported their details into the digital storage.

Cain: Thanks.

Bob: You’re welcome.

--------------------------

A few portals appeared under the drake, its head, and its tail. They slowly submerged into the cosmic gate as the party prepared their belongings and checked for any unnoticed injuries. “Everyone ready?” Jacob asked once the party stopped moving around. They all nodded the departed to the exit.

Once they arrived at the exit, everyone but Jacob spread to the sides of the door, leaving him alone in the door’s path. Cain followed the crowd, interested to see their plan to open the door. Jacob attempted to open it, from putting pressure on the door to slide it to lifting it up and even ramming it.

Jared, the only member on the right side of the door, signaled Jacob to stop. Jacob nodded and took a few steps back, raising his arms as if he were about to block something. Jared took the butt of his dagger and jabbed the metal box that laid on the wall; a keypad. Electricity sparked and arced, yet nothing happened.

“...Cain, could you open this door for us?” Jacob hesitantly asked. “Sure, normally destroying that box like Jared did should’ve worked anyways.” At least it does in the movies… Cain replied while pondering the discrepancy between reality and the movies.

He ordered SRI to create a portal on top of the door, connected to the same space as the drake body. SRI slowly lowered the portal entrance, forcibly moving the portal to the storage dimension. Jacob’s muscles tensed as his senses picked up something heading his way. Cain similarly read the feedback from the Mana Zone to observe something charging up.

When half of the door laid within the storage dimension, a plasma turret fired a massive beam towards Jacob. The amount of mana and plasma that laid within the beam astonished Cain. He instantly slowed the approach of the beam by using the surrounding mana within the Mana Zone to encase it in a mana net.

[100% - s]

Cain simultaneously hopped forward and stuck his hand in front of Jacob. Although it was but a hop, it covered a few meters in less than half a second. The dust and pebbles that laid on the ground stirred to life in Cain’s wake. Jacob stared dumbfounded as he saw the plasma beam make contact with Cain’s hand then disappear.

In reality, Cain simply converted the beam into mana, starting from the back. The space between the end of the beam and Cain’s hand was negative, meaning it had singed part of his skin before he could fully capture it. These factors, combined with the speed that the beam converted into mana, made it appear as if the beam disappeared into Cain’s hand.

Once the beam disappeared, the turret that fired it powered down, along with the remaining flickering lights. Cain noticed the barrel of the turret flowered outwards, some molten parts even dripping to the floor. He took advantage of the darkness to heal his burnt palm with Dresil’s aid. Jacob lit a torch with Victoria’s help then distributed one to Jared, Victoria, and Catherine.

—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (2094ms)

Cain: Rex, how strong was that plasma beam?

Rex: Even with your physical enhancement at 100%, it would have easily vaporized you.

Rex: I couldn’t get a good look at it, but it could probably tear through a 15 million or so mana defense.

Cain: …this place is more dangerous than I thought.

Bob: Did the AI or software controlling the turret get input from the drake about your power level and attack with something that’d shear through it?

Cain: Looks like it. Whatever they’re protecting must be important to have an evolving defense and to drain all of their power on one attack.

Rex: Wouldn’t it be useless since the power was drained?

Cain: Nah, if whatever is in control of the defense is smart enough to adapt, then it wouldn’t have just used all of the power on one iffy attack.

Dresil: Which means whatever they’re protecting is on a backup power supply or doesn’t need power at all?

Cain: Yep. Probably the latter though.

Cain: Bob, how old are these ruins?

Bob: Preliminary analysis points towards 30,000 to 40,000 years.

Cain: Dang… just how powerful must this civilization be to have ruins that can still defend itself like this…

Cain: Do you guys know anything?

Rex: Nah, I hardly remember what I ate for breakfast.

Dresil: Mood, although you don’t eat.

Rex: …oh, that’s right.

Bob: Unfortunately, the Spirit Kings of that era are now high gods managing other planets, universes, or doing bureaucratic work.

Cain: Oooh, are all planets managed?

Bob: Not usually. Only those with mana or those that have chances to produce gods; low or high.

Bob: This is to prevent rogue gods that cause havoc from appearing.

Bob: Keep in mind though, low and high gods are true gods. Meaning they were birthed from the creator or nature.

Bob: The gods of the mythos on your planets are gods created from imagination. Beings that were created because enough people believed they existed. Their power is directly related to their followers and who knows of them.

Bob: In terms of ranking, most are considered lower gods. There are some who are on par with higher gods though.

Cain: Dang… so the bois from the myths is like that one god created in The Gamer.

Bob: Basically yes, but there are a lot more factors and principles involved.

Cain: Interesting…

Dresil: Master, you should shelf this topic for later, you’re still in the ruins.

Cain: Ah, that’s right. Dang it.

Cain: Remind me to talk about this later.

Bob: Will do.

--------------------------

[10% - s]

Once every other person had a torch, they directed the light to themselves. “Everyone ok?” Jacob asked the party. They each checked their belongings and each other, looking for damages or injuries. “Seems like it.” Victoria stated after a while.

“Just what was that?” Jared asked while peeking down the doorway. The molten metal lit up the ground around it and parts of the overloaded turret. The light slowly dimmed as it cooled. “The Adventurer’s guild severely miscalculated the danger of these ruins.” Cain stepped forward, inspecting the next room in detail with his Mana Zone, but going through the actions to feign doing it with his eyes.

“If it wasn’t for the Fire Spirit King, even I would have died from that attack.” Cain’s words chilled the party’s very souls. The realization of danger finally dawned on them. “So… what do we do now?” Victoria asked, breaking the frightful silence, further enforced by the eerie darkness that crept up to the torches.

“It’s up to you guys. You can either follow me, or leave. I’ll be continuing either way.” Cain stated while standing in the doorway, inspecting the frame. Parts of it evaporated from the beam, leaving behind cooled molten concrete and metal. The party discussed their options for a few minutes then came to a conclusion.