The three severed torsos of the adult trench scavengers didn't dissolve or vanish. Instead, as their vital signs entirely flatlined against the red sand, a faint, rhythmic pulse of light emanated from the center of their chests.
CRACK.
The heavy, bone-like sternums of the beasts split open naturally, revealing three glowing, jagged shards of raw energy floating just above the dead flesh. Two leaked a vibrant, muddy brown light, while the largest one—shattered by Zeke's direct Qi strike—radiated a deep, localized frost signature.
"Intermediate Tier Beast Crystals," Myles Vale muttered, stepping closer as the purple static around his knuckles faded into a dull hum. He looked down at the icy shard with raw fascination. "An adult alpha variant with a clean elemental attunement. Do you have any idea what a legacy forge pays for a harvest this pure?"
"Enough to buy a private training array for a semester," Kieran Ziya admitted, his cocky posture returning as he wiped a bead of sweat from his tanned forehead. He cast a highly cautious, re-evaluating glance toward Zeke. "Normally, when you blast a beast with heavy magic, the crystal fractures or loses purity because of the elemental interference. But you... you killed these with pure kinetic velocity. The structural purity of these shards is flawless."
Iris Nyx didn't wait. With a graceful, fluid motion, she stepped forward and retrieved the frost-attuned crystal, the icy shard instantly stabilizing as it made contact with her pale skin. She turned her icy blue eyes back to Zeke, a sharp, highly amused smile playing on her lips. "I'll hold onto this one for our cell's evaluation log, Zeke. Unless, of course, our resident Zero wants to craft himself some heavy armor?"
"Keep it," Zeke said evenly, his voice maintaining that absolute, hollow stillness. He didn't care about the market value of the crystals. His focus was entirely on the faint, dark gold digital matrix ticking down at the edge of his vision.
[CURRENT EXPERIENCE: 2800 / 3000]
[NEXT LEVEL GAIN: LEVEL 6 (THRESHOLD NEAR)]
"We need to push down to the second tier," Luke cut in, his strategic gaze scanning the narrow obsidian corridor. He was casually spinning the small iron dagger he had materialized earlier. "The standard common beasts on this level are cleared out. If we want to secure a top-three placement for Cell Four, we need to hunt where the adult Alphas are nesting. The deeper we go, the higher the crystal density."
The five-man cell reformed their tight wedge, descending down a steep, winding incline where the trench walls transitioned from polished obsidian to rough, ancient basalt rock. The air grew progressively thinner, smelling heavily of sulfur and raw mineral veins.
But as they crossed the threshold into the sprawling cavern of Tier Two, a sudden, heavy echo of footsteps boomed from a parallel junction.
Stepping out into the wider cavern was Brandon's cell.
The massive, earth-attuned legacy student was flanked by four other high-tier recruits, all of them carrying custom-forged iron armaments. Brandon's eyes instantly locked onto the glowing crystal pouch hanging from Iris's belt, and his face twisted into a dark, venomous scowl. He had witnessed the high-tier magical flares from the upper ridge, but seeing Cell Four completely uninjured—and heavily laden with Intermediate shards—was tearing his pride to pieces.
"Well, look at the scavengers," Brandon sneered, resting his heavy iron staff over his thick shoulder. His earth mana pulsed subtly, causing a few loose pebbles on the cavern floor to vibrate. "Must be nice having an S-Rank creation anomaly and Sector Two elites to carry your heavy bags, Zero. I told you the dirt down here gets deep. Looks like you're just riding their coat-tails."
"We harvested three adult Alphas while you were still parsing the map, Brandon," Kieran snapped back, his amber eyes flashing with a protective, cocky heat as he stepped forward, his broad shoulders blocking Zeke from view. "If you're here to talk, step aside. We're tracking a larger signature down the eastern trench."
Brandon let out a low, sinister chuckle, exchanging a knowing look with his squadmates. "Oh, we know all about the eastern trench. In fact, we just ran into a nesting pair of Basilisks down that way. Heavy scales. Gaze-disruption traits. Intermediate-tier adults."
Luke's blue eyes instantly narrowed, his analytical mind catching the subtle shift in Brandon's stance. "You didn't engage them."
"Engage them? Nah, we're tactical," Brandon grinned wickedly. "We just... agitated them. Broke their egg clutch and ran this way. They're tracking the scent of our earth signatures right now. And since you're standing directly in our path of retreat..."
Before Brandon could finish his sentence, a terrifying, multi-ton vibration shook the entire cavern.
From the dark, yawning cavern mouth of the eastern trench, two massive reptilian horrors slithered into the floodlights. They were nearly thirty feet long, their bodies covered in thick, emerald-green scales that absorbed the ambient light. They didn't have legs; their massive, muscular coils crushed the basalt stone beneath them as they moved, their golden, slit-pupil eyes radiating a faint, dizzying status-effect aura that caused the air to ripple with distortion.
[TARGET DETECTED: ADULT TRENCH BASILISK (INTERMEDIATE TIER)]
[ESTIMATED THREAT LEVEL: D-RANK ALPHA (x2)]
[SYSTEM DATA: GAZE DISRUPTION AURA, ACIDIC SALIVA, KINETIC IMPACT RESISTANCE]
"They're enraged!" Iris warned, her graceful posture instantly dropping into a low combat stance as a thick cloud of freezing permafrost erupted from her boots, attempting to chill the air before the beasts struck.
"Have fun with the harvest, Zeros!" Brandon shouted, his squad instantly activating their movement traits to sprint past Cell Four's left flank, intending to use the distraction to escape back toward the lift gates while leaving Zeke's squad to take the brunt of the double Alpha ambush.
"Myles, lock the left flank! Luke, establish a barrier!" Kieran commanded, his body exploding with a brilliant, blinding aura of Radiant Energy as he prepared to intercept the lead Basilisk's crushing charge.
But Brandon had timed his sabotage perfectly. The second Basilisk, sensing the high mana signatures of the group, let out a deafening, wet hiss and swerved sharply toward the narrow corridor where Luke and Iris were casting, its massive, spiked tail whipping through the air like a heavy steel cable to disrupt their concentration.
Zeke didn't check his position. He didn't ask for permission.
Moving with the absolute peak velocity of his Level 5 attributes, his body blurred across the red sand, completely ignoring the dizzying gaze-disruption aura radiating from the monster's golden eyes. The system's mental dampeners couldn't affect a mind that had already been broken and rebuilt by Cyrus's ruthless training.
He didn't have Luke's iron gladius this time. He didn't need it.
Zeke stepped directly into the trajectory of the whipping, multi-ton tail. He didn't dodge. Instead, he drove his boots into the fractured basalt floor, bent his knees, and thrust his raw, bare hands straight forward to catch the descending spike.
BANG!
The impact sent a violent tremor through the stone beneath his feet, fracturing the basalt floor into a spiderweb of cracks. Brandon, who was halfway down the escape tunnel, paused to look back, fully expecting to see the Zero crushed into a bloody paste.
Instead, Zeke stood completely unmoving. His hands were clamped tightly around the massive, thrashing green tail. His muscles were strained to their absolute limit, but the sheer physical container mass he possessed held the multi-ton Basilisk perfectly in place.
[ACCESSING BEAST ARCHIVE...]
[INSIGHT TRIGGERED: BASILISK SCALE FRAGMENTATION]
[EFFECT: TARGET ARMOR ACCESSIBILITY IS EXPOSED]
"Luke, now!" Zeke commanded, his voice a low, mechanical growl.
Luke didn't waste a millisecond. With a brilliant flash of cosmic light, he materialized a heavy, broad-headed iron spear directly above the Basilisk's pinned tail.
Zeke released his grip for a fraction of a second, caught the falling spear mid-air, and channeled his tightly compressed Qi straight into the iron shaft. He didn't aim for the thick, emerald scales—his Archive insight showed him the exact, microscopic seam where the creature's spinal alignment connected to its lower torso.
He drove the spear downward with terrifying physical velocity.
SPIKE-CRACK!
The iron spear completely bypassed the kinetic-resistant scales, driving deep into the core of the monster's spine. The internal shockwave of compressed Qi detonated inside the flesh, violently severing the nerve pathways. The massive Basilisk let out a final, agonizing screech before its entire thirty-foot frame collapsed heavily into the red sand, completely neutralized.
A sharp, golden chime echoed inside Zeke's skull.
[TARGET NEUTRALIZED: ADULT TRENCH BASILISK]
[EXP ACQUIRED: +900]
[CONGRATULATIONS! USER HAS REACHED: LEVEL 6]
[ATTRIBUTES UPGRADED // UNALLOCATED POINTS AVAILABLE]
The sudden, violent evolution pulsed through Zeke's veins like liquid fire, instantly stabilizing his muscles and wiping away every ounce of fatigue from the heavy kinetic impact.
He didn't even pause to look at the massive, high-grade Intermediate Tier Beast Crystal cracking open from the dead Basilisk's chest. He slowly pulled the iron spear out of the carcass, his dark, hollow eyes shifting entirely toward the escape tunnel.
Brandon was standing there, his face completely pale, his jaw hanging open in absolute horror as his earth mana sputtered out completely. He had just watched a zero casually stop a D-Rank Alpha's charge with his bare hands and execute it in a single strike.
Zeke turned the spear in his hand, his posture completely relaxed as he began walking slowly toward Brandon's position.
"You said the dirt down here gets deep, Brandon," Zeke whispered, the cold tip of the iron spear dragging a clean line through the red sand behind him. "Let's see how deep you sink."