'What the fuck am I doing?' Kyle thought as he looked at the stone wall in front of him.
'I was always interested in the wealth of Theodor's Crypt. I wanted to have all the ores and the Ether he had stored in there. I saw the beasts and Ore Fiends as obstacles.'
Kyle sighed.
'But now, it's almost like the obstacles have become the reward.'
'I'm not here for the money but for what many people would consider suicide.'
'Man, I sure do love me some suicide.'
'This is so weird and fucked. If I use that gambler analogy again, it's like I'm a gambler who gets excited about betting, not winning.'
'Yes! I get to bet another mortgage on my house! I fucking love this!' Kyle thought sarcastically.
'That's insane. Literal nutcase thinking.'
Kyle sighed again. 'And yet, I am going to do it anyway.'
Then, Kyle quickly shook his head again to regain his bearings.
"Alright, how do I open this weird door?" Kyle asked.
"Go to the wall and touch that stone," Theodor said.
Over the next minute, Theodor gave Kyle directions on how to open the door, and finally, it opened.
The wall opened, and Kyle could see the cave behind it.
He still somewhat remembered the way and what he had seen.
"Alright, time to kill myself, I guess," Kyle commented as he readied his hammer.
Naturally, Kyle had already summoned his True Body, making him around three meters tall.
Then, he strode into the cave.
The wall behind him shook and closed on its own.
There was no more light entering the cave, but Kyle didn't need that anyway.
The more powerful he became, the more his perception relied on the Ether in the surroundings.
Even though Kyle was still only near the entrance, his instincts were already telling him that this was not a good idea.
They couldn't tell Kyle where the danger was, but they knew that this place was quite dangerous.
Kyle closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Then, his eyes opened with conviction.
"Let's get this show on the road," he said as he stepped forward.
As he stepped forward, Kyle felt the feeling of danger increase.
The tunnel was long and not very straight, making it difficult to feel what was around the corner.
When Kyle reached another corner, he stopped.
There was danger around the corner, but it was not immediate.
Instead of continuing, Kyle poked his head around the corner to look.
'Oh, it's that room,' he thought.
This was one of the underground caves with a small lake.
The room itself was around 50 meters long and ten meters high. The right side of the room was essentially just a slope with some ore growing here and there. The left side of the room had a long and relatively deep lake.
Back then, the dog dragon thing walked through this room without any incidents, but Kyle remembered seeing a couple of Ore Fiends.
'I don't see any Ore Fiends,' Kyle thought as he looked at the room, 'but my instincts really don't like this room.'
A moment later, some of the ore growing on the slope started to shake.
Five of the clusters of ore rose from the ground and turned to Kyle.
'More crabs,' Kyle thought as he looked at them. 'Wonder how they noticed me.'
Meanwhile, the Crab Ore Fiends looked at the huge head poking around the corner.
Predator, neutral, or food?
They weren't sure.
'Well, they already saw me,' Kyle thought as he stepped around the corner.
The crabs saw Kyle's hammer and armor.
Ore!
Valuable ore!
Food!
Ironically, since these were Ore Fiends, Kyle wouldn't have gained their ire if he were simply unarmed.
These things were not interested in flesh and biological Ether.
They wanted pure Metal Ether.
The blue ore crabs rapidly started to advance, and they were not slow.
A battle was imminent.
Theodor didn't say anything.
Kyle narrowed his eyes as he saw the crabs approaching.
They were not very big. The biggest one was only about two meters high.
The tunnel in which Kyle stood was not that big, and only two crabs fit through it at a time.
Kyle readied his hammer.
'Mid Ore Fiends,' Kyle thought. 'One level above me.'
As the first crab approached, Kyle swung his hammer.
Wind Ether gathered around it.
Explosions appeared behind the hammer.
All runes on Kyle's armor shone.
The crab grabbed the hammer.
BOOOOOOOOM!
The walls of the tunnel exploded, stone exploding everywhere.
Four crabs were pushed out of the tunnel, landing in the big room.
The next moment, the slope of the room made the crabs tumble into the water.
A ton of smaller, biological crabs scattered inside the lake.
The Ore Fiends quickly righted themselves and looked at the collapsed entrance of the tunnel.
CRK!
The next moment, the stones moved to the side as Kyle's huge form walked out of the collapsed tunnel.
He looked at the four remaining Ore Fiends.
Naturally, they were the only ones left.
That Ore Fiend from earlier had tried to catch Kyle's hammer.
That was akin to a normal human trying to catch a high-caliber bullet.
Yeah, you can try catching it.
But… well…
It wouldn't really make a difference.
The crabs looked at Kyle and immediately charged at him.
Ore Fiends were stupid.
Their attacks were predictable.
In a way, Ore Fiends were even easier to kill than beasts, but in general, they were viewed as equal.
While Ore Fiends didn't even have the basic combat abilities of beasts, they were made of ore.
That increased their defense by quite a bit, and since they didn't have biological bodies, killing them was also different.
One had to hit their Core to kill them.
Yet…
BANG!
Kyle's hammer swung through the air, turning one of the crabs into individual pebbles.
In front of Kyle, what did their increased defense matter?
If there was one thing Kyle was good at, it was smashing stuff with his hammer.
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