The biome was bigger than the others before. Why, the diameter of the caldera was more than three leagues wide! They emerged on a ridge, roughly five hundred paces above the bottom of the caldera. She saw the pool of lava in the middle and the portal to the next layer. When she activated her Enhanced Sight, she couldn’t see the details from the Elemental Fog. It was actually much thicker here than the rest of the biomes.

There was a clear path from the ridge down towards the lava lake. It zigzagged down the side of the slope, carved from the rocks, and was about five paces wide. A transport could probably barely fit on the road, but wouldn’t be able to diverge much. Most of the Camper Trucks she saw in Node 626’s showrooms were roughly four or so paces wide, and they varied in length. If they brought a Camper Truck here, they wouldn’t be able to turn back. 

There were no visible enemies, but since this was the tenth biome of the day, they were stuck here until the next day. Or rather, that’s what should have happened. Transition biomes were special in that they would allow delvers to go through the portal. There was usually a guardian, but defeating it wasn’t necessary. After crossing, they could stay at the first biome, but from then on, they would only be able to cross nine biomes before being locked out. 

According to research, each succeeding layer would have biomes that were bigger than the layer before. As much as twice as big, but was usually around half again as much on average. That meant that crossing the limit each day would be harder. 

Since they were on foot, there was little reason to hesitate. They kept to their formation, however, with Ilvara and Ryoko protected in the middle. Her handmaidens were with her because it didn’t make sense to waste credits renting a house when most of them would be delving. Node 626’s rules even accounted for the frequent disappearances of adventurer teams. Hotels, as long as one of the group is affiliated with the adventurers’ or delvers’ guild, were allowed to schedule their stays weeks in advance for a minimal deposit. Their expected delving time was about fifty days, so the hotel they stayed in before allowed them to book a new room when they return, before they’ve even left for their expedition. The discount for advanced booking was good enough that it actually made more sense to do so than to attempt an on-the-day booking. 

Heron and Fluffington took the lead this time, walking about ten paces ahead of Ilvara. Yuriko took the rear, simply because her range could cover the entire group with ease. Gwendith walked next to her simply to keep her company, while Carina, with Sir Blue, Devotee, and Saki, marched just ahead of the centre. 

The sloping road descended a couple of paces along a slight incline before it turned to the left. Looking at it now, Yuriko wondered if the road spiralled around the entire caldera before reaching the bottom. The fog prevented her from seeing clearly, and the shade of the road matched the rocky cliffside. 

They travelled for a good longstride in peace. The slope wasn’t bad enough to be easily noticeable, but a glance back showed that they had descended ten paces down the ridge. The fog didn’t hinder the road, looking back, in defiance to the conventional rules of the world. 

She had been anticipating the arrival of the biome’s monsters, and the fact that she could detect nothing nearby was making her a bit antsy. Where were they hiding? Underground? Merged into the walls? Oh. She was right, except the things came out of caves that hadn’t been there a moment ago. 

The biome shifted under her perception, and the very act of it grated on her senses. Shangria probably didn’t want her, or any Ancient for that matter, to get a closer look at things under the hood. She could probably push it, but she didn’t know how the planet would respond. She had little doubt that there was a guiding intelligence here. 

The monsters were relatively small, lizard-like creatures, roughly fifty inches long, and about four inches tall at the shoulder. Their scales looked like craggly rock, and their eyes were burning red. They emerged from a cave mouth some thirty paces in front of Heron, and another twenty behind her. There were dozens of them out at once. 

The lizards spread across the road, making a threatening display, but the ones from behind immediately rushed towards them, tempted by the fact that nobody was looking behind. Yuriko let them approach, watching with a bit of amusement as the ones in front reared up and hissed. Flames spat out from their jaws, flickering in the heated air. Heron prepared his weapons and started moving up, while allowing the others to take their positions. Carina aimed her plasma rifle, but didn’t shoot. Instead, she whirled around to point at the ambush. 

“Behind!” she yelled, but Yuriko grinned and snapped her fingers. Without even looking, she sent a dozen Invisible Edges to bisect the monsters. That had been costly on her Intent reserves, but she’d progressed enough that a blade didn’t even take a tenth of a percent to cast. 

Carina blinked in surprise, then nodded as she turned back to the front. Yuriko’s Anima perception tightened to focus on her immediate surroundings. The next spiral of road after the one they were on was about a hundred paces beneath. They could probably jump down and skip walking around the entire place if they wanted to. She had no doubt other delvers had already done that, but she wondered what problems or countermeasures Shangria had for people breaking the ‘rules’. It hadn’t occurred to her to ask about it, considering how straightforward navigating the biomes was. 

Heron’s spear, along with Devotee’s Burning Mau,l made short work of the granite lizards. Behind her, the corpses already turned to dust and left a couple of shards. Yuriko fetched them with her kinesis, and a cursory examination revealed that they were roughly a tenth heavier than the norm. They had tens of thousands of shards already collected, and she hoped to breach a hundred thousand by next week. The things fit easily in the expanded backpacks, especially as the bulkier MREs were depleted. There were also several granite scales that dropped from the dead. They were roughly the size of her fingernail, and she wasn’t sure how much the things were worth. 

She tossed one to Carina, who examined it and shrugged. “Looks like any other reptilian scale to me. It’s infused with a tiny bit of Fire Elemental energy, I think, but I’d need specialised equipment, or a spell I haven’t learned, to give a precise measurement. A Jin of these things is probably worth a thousand credits.” 

“That’s not bad, considering each one of them dropped a piece,” Yuriko hummed. It looked like it would take the majority of the rest of the day to go around the caldera. “Do you think we could just hop down?” 

Carina frowned, then hummed. “It should be fine. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be able to see the path at all. But there will be repercussions if we do. I don’t know what.”

“Nobody tried before?” 

“I…look, the biome changes and the path through them is mutable. This is a terminus point, meaning the only other exit is to delve to the 2nd layer. It changes day to day, though there are some repeats.” 

“And this one?”

“I haven’t read about all of them,” Carina said defensively, “I think there are hundreds of possibilities, but a general rule of thumb is if you can see a path, what you do to get to it is valid. At least it won’t get you killed just by straying.” 

“I see.”

“But are you eager to just hurry along? If we take the portal, we’d just be stuck in the first biome in the 2nd layer.”

“Well, these things come out in greater numbers than usual, without a reduction in drops.” Yuriko shrugged, “It’s not much of a waste of time to harvest.” 

“I agree.” Carina grinned, “I haven’t been to the second layer with such a small expedition, though, I’ve earned more creds every day than I would in a Season.” 

“That’s a shame,” Yuriko commiserated. “You need every cred you can take, don’t you?” 

Carina snorted and shook her head. “So we’re jumping or walking?”

“Let’s be cautious,” Yuriko said. By her reckoning, they had roughly six hours or so before twilight. One in ten lizards dropped a shard, and each battle involved nearly fifty of the cretins. A Jin of scales would be around two to five hundred pieces. The granite lizards were a treasure.

They covered roughly another longstride when they came upon a fork in the road, though it was one that led towards the top of the ridge rather than a path leading down. She glanced up but couldn’t see past the fog, nor did she hear anyone coming down. But no sooner had they crossed the fork than the pitter patter of relatively tiny feet…claws, thundered in her ears. 

“Swarn!” Carina yelped. “Run!” 

A tide of lizardlings came from the fork, each one with burning eyes and spitting acid and fire. Yuriko snapped her fingers and bisected the vanguard, killing hundreds in less than an instant, but more followed behind. Their eyes burned in manic rage, and they threw themselves at her with little regard for their safety. In fact, a good number of them tumbled off the road. There weren’t any barriers after all. 

Yuriko snapped her fingers and, at the same time, unleashed the sunblades she had hidden underneath her coat. Six blades flew, spinning like a whirlwind and supported by the Invisible Edges. They carved furrows into the incoming swarm of lizardlings, but her blades lasted only a few seconds before they guttered out. Within that time frame, they must have killed a hundred foes at least. The Invisible Edges anchored to the blades barely lasted two blows before collapsing, while the Radiant energy she infused into the sunblades was drawn out by the lizardling scales. But the things seemed tougher than she expected…denser flesh? Thicker scales, or did they have energy absorption properties? Either way, she released more sunblades. 

She had hundreds concealed underneath her coat, miniaturised to the size of her fingers so that they weren’t in the way. Once they popped out of hiding, they sprang back to their normal size and were quite effective at killing things. 

Normally, her sunblades didn’t last that long after she manifested them. Ten to twenty minutes, usually, depending on what she hit with it. If they remained idle, they lasted just a bit longer, too. The act of compressing the blades to finger size preserved the Radiance, and a touch of Will and Intent made the blades far more robust than was possible. In fact, those blades infused with Intent could fly beyond her reach, and act as a relay point to her senses, or as autonomous weapons should she choose that way. 

Heron and the others carved their way through the anvil to the swarm’s hammer, Yuriko held the line, and while the swarm of thousands of lizards with flame breaths and sharp teeth might seem intimidating, for her, the only thing she could see them as were credits to be claimed. 

She floated behind the others, manifesting more and more sunblades to replace those she used up. Soon enough, the swarm broke against her, and a few moments later, the air was thick with dust. And the road was littered with gleaming shards. She whistled happily as she retrieved the loot and giggled at the look on Carina’s face. 

Did she dare think that this was too easy? Yes, she did. And she hoped whatever Shangria sent out after she voiced that thought was worth fighting.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep