Chapter 70: The Concrete Canopy

The descent from the Sovereign’s Peak took exactly thirty-six grueling hours.

With the terrestrial anchor completely assimilated into Ren’s vascular system, the massive, suffocating atmospheric pressure of the mountain range was entirely gone. The brutal, localized mana-storms ceased. The jagged, winding cliff trails were no longer patrolled by colossal, high-tier leviathans. The entire alpine ecosystem had been violently, fundamentally sterilized by the massive void walking down the slopes.

Ren marched with flawless, mechanical efficiency.

His Level 32 biology had completely abandoned the concept of fatigue. The heavy, matte-black ballistic canvas of his trench coat billowed in the steady, manageable wind. Beneath it, his pitch-black, tungsten-sheened Iron Skin and the iridescent obsidian plates of his Chitin Shell absorbed the pale afternoon sunlight, radiating absolutely zero ambient mana. He had compressed the massive, roaring ocean of the region’s energy so deeply into his marrow that to the outside world, he registered as a complete, terrifying void.

Chloe followed him, her combat boots aching but her breathing significantly easier in the thickening oxygen of the lower altitudes.

She had consumed her final three military MREs during the descent, chewing the dry, chalky biscuits while walking. She kept the FN P90 submachine gun slung tightly across her Level III-A plate carrier. She no longer looked at the jagged shadows or the dark caves along the pass. She knew that whatever might be hiding in the dark was infinitely more terrified of the two-hundred-and-seventy-pound monolith walking in front of her.

By late afternoon of the second day, the steep, rocky incline finally flattened out.

The dark shale gave way to cracked, heavily buckled Old World asphalt. They had reached the massive, multi-lane interstate highway that served as the primary northern artery into the sprawling metropolis.

The city was a staggering monument to the apocalypse.

Towering, glass-and-steel skyscrapers leaned against each other at terrifying, gravity-defying angles, their structural foundations shattered by localized seismic shifts. But the city wasn’t dead. It was heavily, violently overgrown. Massive, thick vines pulsing with a sickly, bioluminescent green sap choked the concrete. Towering, mutated flora burst through the asphalt, turning the urban grid into a claustrophobic, incredibly dense synthetic jungle.

“The ambient mana signature here is chaotic,” Ren stated, his deep, resonant voice vibrating the stagnant, humid air of the highway. His completely solid violet eyes scanned the rusted, bumper-to-bumper graveyard of abandoned civilian vehicles stretching toward the city limits. “It is not concentrated in a single terrestrial battery. It is dispersed among millions of localized biological threats.”

“It’s a jungle,” Chloe whispered, pulling the heavy thermal blankets off her shoulders and stuffing them into her webbing. The temperature at the base of the mountain was sweltering, the air thick with the smell of rotting vegetation, rusted iron, and stagnant water.

Ren stepped onto the cracked asphalt of the highway.

They walked for exactly two miles, weaving through the silent, rusted husks of Old World sedans and shattered transport trucks. The thick, green vines crawled over the rusted metal, actively slowly digesting the iron with highly acidic sap.

As they approached a massive, crumbling concrete overpass spanning the highway, the shadows beneath the bridge shifted.

The System overlay flashed a sharp, localized red warning across Ren’s retinas.

[Urban-Weaver Arachnid (Lvl 22)] [Status: Ambush / Starving]

Hanging upside down beneath the concrete overpass was a horrific, heavily mutated spider the size of a commercial delivery van. Its bulbous abdomen was covered in thick, dark grey bristles that perfectly camouflaged it against the concrete. Its eight multi-jointed legs ended in sharp, rusted-steel-like points.

The Weaver dropped a thick, localized strand of highly tensile, acidic webbing, lowering itself silently toward the dark, trench-coat-clad figure walking beneath it.

The arachnid’s primitive, eight-eyed sensory cluster analyzed the prey. It couldn’t sense any ambient mana radiating from the massive, dark silhouette. No localized energy, the Weaver thought, its starving instincts overriding any caution. A heavy, unmutated human. I will wrap the meat in acidic silk and liquefy its internal organs.

The massive arachnid dropped from the webbing, aiming to land directly on Ren’s broad shoulders and sink its massive, dripping fangs into his neck.

Ren didn’t look up. He didn’t activate his Dash skill. He didn’t even break his stride.

He simply raised his bare, pitch-black tungsten left hand.

As the van-sized arachnid plummeted toward him, Ren caught the beast by its massive, descending left fang.

The collision was instantly fatal for the aggressor. The heavy, hyper-compressed density of Ren’s Level 32 Iron Skin completely shattered the arachnid’s fang upon impact. The beast shrieked, a high-pitched, clicking hiss of absolute agony, its massive momentum completely halted by Ren’s immovable, heavily armored arm.

Ren didn’t use his Rending Claws. He didn’t need localized bladed weapons against a Level 22 insect.

He channeled a fraction of his raw, unadulterated kinetic torque, gripping the shattered stump of the fang, and simply swung his massive arm in a brutal downward arc.

He slammed the massive, van-sized spider directly into the cracked asphalt.

The localized kinetic force was catastrophic. The thick asphalt instantly cratered, spider-webbing outward for twenty feet. The Weaver’s bulbous abdomen violently ruptured on impact, spraying hundreds of gallons of thick, acidic green hemolymph across the rusted cars and the concrete overpass. The beast’s eight legs twitched erratically before curling inward as its biological functions permanently ceased.

[Target Dead: Urban-Weaver Arachnid (Lvl 22)] [Experience Gained: 18,000]

“Your tensile strength was fundamentally flawed,” Ren stated, his deep voice entirely analytical as he stood over the completely pulverized, steaming carcass. “And your ambush parameters failed to account for suppressed mass.”

Chloe jogged up behind him, her P90 raised, staring at the massive, crushed spider leaking acid onto the highway. The Weaver had attempted to ambush them, and Ren had simply swatted it out of the air like a minor, irrelevant nuisance.

“Is the entire city like this?” Chloe asked, her eyes scanning the dark, overgrown skyline of the metropolis ahead.

“The urban grid offers infinite vertical and subterranean ambush vectors,” Ren replied, reaching into the ruined, acidic mess of the spider’s thorax.

His dark, tungsten-sheened skin was entirely immune to the highly corrosive acid. He extracted a jagged, pulsing green core, easily the size of a grapefruit. He didn’t bother wiping the acidic slime off it. He crushed the crystal between his heavy molars.

[Gluttony Activated.] [Consumed: Urban-Weaver Core (Lvl 22)] [Agility +2]

The minor stat boost barely registered in the massive, deep ocean of his Level 32 architecture.

“The lower-tier anomalies will attempt to utilize the verticality of the skyscrapers to mask their approach,” Ren continued, wiping his dark hand on the hem of his trench coat. “But the localized density of the city means the high-tier apex predators will be heavily concentrated. The harvest here will be highly efficient.”

He turned his completely solid, burning violet eyes toward the dark, ruined heart of the city.

Ren steps firmly over the violently ruptured carcass of the arachnid, his heavy combat boots crunching over the acidic, melting asphalt, driving his massive, Abyssal Tyrant frame directly into the claustrophobic, mutated nightmare of the Old World metropolis.

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