Wizard: My skills can be upgraded indefinitely.

As mentioned in Alyvia's report, the Void Anchor is located deep within the "Twisted Corridor" on the third level of the dungeon.

After Ian reached the ground, he continued to follow the sensory path.

The fluctuations became clearer, and we encountered two men in gray robes on the road.

Now that he had gained quite a bit and was in a great mood, he casually prepared a meal for the two of them.

He encountered some more monsters on the way, and avoided them whenever possible. Suddenly, his senses became clearer than ever before.

The direction from which the fluctuation came was directly ahead of a darker-looking fork in the road, with even more twisted and grotesque reliefs on both sides.

At the fork in the road, the light and shadow were distorted so badly that everything inside was blurry, as if looking through a layer of shimmering water.

The energy at that entrance is extremely unstable, and it looks very risky.

What dangers lie inside is completely unknown.

Ian hesitated for only two seconds before deciding to go in.

Void Anchor is the core material he currently lacks the most.

It concerns the Abyss Altar, and whether he can reconnect with that unknown, otherworldly homeland.

If we miss this opportunity, who knows how many more years we'll have to wait?

He glanced at the dimly lit side road and then felt the faint resonance emanating from the panel.

"Hey, get ready, we're about to turn," he whispered.

Something's really wrong inside.

Ga Ga's voice was a little tense. "The shadows are all distorted. I probably won't be of much help if I go in."

"I know. Stay close to me, and warn me immediately if anything seems amiss."

Without further hesitation, Ian lifted his foot and walked toward the dimly lit side path.

The moment you step through the distorted light and shadow at the entrance, it feels like passing through a layer of sticky, cold gel.

I seemed to be hallucinating; the voice was incredibly shrill, and my vision blurred suddenly.

But the golden light at the core of his spiritual sea suddenly shone brightly.

The panel's protection has also been maximized.

After a brief period of dizziness, he regained his balance.

Before them lay a narrow, downward-sloping passage, its walls transformed into rough rock, as if torn apart by immense force.

It was covered with dark green, pulsating moss that looked like veins, emitting a faint glow and a strong smell of decay.

A thin, grayish-white mist filled the passageway, obstructing the view.

The faint fluctuation of the rules emanated from the depths of the passage, becoming a little clearer.

Ian clenched his fist, a jade-like luster flowing beneath his skin, his mental energy highly concentrated, and he walked step by step into the depths of the passage.

Ian stared at the narrow passage, his fingertips tracing the cold stone wall, bringing down a few damp moss patches.

The further you go in, the stronger the sweet smell in the air becomes, and it feels a bit sticky when you breathe it in.

The passage narrowed, and cracked metal plates and scattered charred pipes began to appear underfoot.

After walking about fifty meters, the space suddenly opened up in front of us.

It was a large hall that had collapsed halfway.

Half of the ceiling collapsed, and a huge metal beam was stuck diagonally into the ground.

It was covered with dark green vines that seemed to wriggle around like living things.

The other half was still barely holding on, revealing several twisted and deformed alloy doors behind it.

In the center of the hall, there is a broken workbench that is about half a person's height.

The countertop is cracked, and several dark gray stones can be vaguely seen inside, with silver patterns slowly flowing on their surfaces.

Void Anchor.

Ian's heart skipped a beat, but he didn't move.

His mental energy spread out like a spider web, carefully sweeping across the entire hall.

Around the control panel, the ground was engraved with a ring of runes that were almost worn smooth, but whose energy had not yet completely dissipated.

The energy was very weak, and the structure was ancient, but Ian recognized it as a composite trigger-based defense array.

Stepping on it won't trigger it immediately, but if you try to take something from the platform or touch a wrong node, the remaining energy will explode instantly.

There's something behind that pile of collapsed metal rubble on the left.

It wasn't like the heartbeat or breathing of a living creature, but rather an extremely subtle and regular "clicking" sound, like rusty gears slowly turning.

The shadow was darker in the right corner than elsewhere, and there was a sweet smell in the air, like rotting fruit.

Ian took out a small piece of discarded metal from his dimensional ring.

He weighed it in his hand and threw it about three meters to the left front of the control panel.

pat.

The parts landed, but the ground runes showed no reaction.

Ian waited five seconds and threw out a second one, this time aiming at the ground directly in front of the control panel.

The parts had just hit the ground.

hum!

Three pale white energy beams shot out from three different angles of the wall cracks, precisely intersecting at the point where the parts landed.

laugh!

The parts vaporized instantly, without even a wisp of smoke.

The energy beam disappeared, and I fell in love with reading, starting with cola novels. The runes dimmed again.

"Fixed-point defense, the trigger point is directly in front of the platform." Ian understood.

He looked at the ruins on his left.

"Hehe, the left side is yours. Just hold them off, don't try to fight them head-on."

"I understand!"

Gaga emerged from the shadows, its size swelling to that of a lynx, and silently circled around to the side of the ruins.

Ian himself walked to the right corner.

The sweetness was even stronger.

He was still five steps away from the corner of the wall when, suddenly, a dark green mist hissed out from the shadows!

The moment the mist was expelled, a fine rustling sound, like countless insect legs crawling, filled the air.

"Activated toxins!" Ian's heart skipped a beat.

It is a variant with both corrosive and spiritual destructive properties.

Instead of retreating, he advanced, fully activating the [Furnace Tempering Technique], causing the jade-like luster under his skin to surge.

At the same time, with a wave of his left hand, three [Frost Rays] swept in a fan shape toward the source of the mist!

It's sizzling!

The intertwined rays of ice and fire collided with the poisonous fog, producing a piercing corrosive sound.

The poisonous fog was frozen and torn apart, but more fog continued to emerge from the depths of the shadows.

Ian kept walking, his right hand loosely clenched.

A walnut-sized gravitational collapse ball rapidly took shape and was slammed into the darkest corner of the wall.

hum!

A deep, muffled thud, the shadows twisted violently, and everything nearby was gripped and squeezed by an invisible, immense force.

"Ah!" A sharp, inhuman scream rang out.

The gushing of poisonous fog came to an abrupt halt.

Taking advantage of the brief moment, Ian slid sideways, bypassed the area filled with toxic fumes, and lunged towards the control panel.

He calculated his steps, precisely avoiding the trigger point directly in front of him, and placed his right foot on a slightly raised metal plate on the side of the platform.

That's a secure node in the defense array.

He reached out with his left hand, his five fingers forming a claw, and fiercely plunged it into the crack in the control panel.

Just as his fingertips were about to touch the nearest void anchor.

"Click! Click! Click!"

Boom! The ruins on the left exploded with a loud bang.

Three alchemical golems, resembling demonic bears and covered in dark red rusted metal, burst out of the ruins.

They have no heads, and in the very center of their bodies is a murky, blood-red crystal that is constantly rotating.

Eight metal limbs stepped on the ground, making a dense, teeth-grinding scraping sound.

The blood-red crystal on the chest of the foremost puppet suddenly lit up, shooting out a dark red beam of light that aimed straight for Ian's back.

Gaga was already poised to make her move.

With a flap of its wings, it appeared strangely behind the puppet.

It swung its claws hard at the joint of the puppet, where the most vulnerable part of the tubing was.

A piercing metallic tearing sound rang out, and dark green lubricant and sparks flew out together.

The puppet tilted, and the beam of light it fired grazed Ian's shoulder before striking the opposite wall, etching a deep crater.

The other two puppets immediately turned and pounced on Gaga.

Gaga didn't fight head-on at all, instead using the shadows to maneuver and dodge within a small area.

Every now and then, it will use [Ominous Eye] to disrupt the puppet's energy core, or peck at it to break the balance.

It moved like a black lightning bolt, weaving between the three enormous puppets.

Although they could not be destroyed in a short time, they successfully contained all the firepower.

Ian's fingers had already touched the stone.

It feels cool and heavy, with a clear sense of "anchoring" conveyed by the silver patterns on its surface.

With a forceful pull, a fist-sized void anchor detached from the table and fell into his palm.

Almost simultaneously, a rapid "beep beep" sound, like a countdown, came from inside the control panel!

The runes on the floor of the entire hall lit up with a blinding red light.

Ian's pupils contracted; the defensive array was nested.

Taking the stone will trigger a second attack, an indiscriminate area-of-effect attack.

Without thinking, he grabbed with his left hand and pried out all four remaining anchor stones from the groove, stuffing them into his dimensional ring.

With lightning speed, his right hand pulled out a pre-prepared tube of "high-concentration energy neutralizer" and smashed it in the center of the control panel.

The glass tube shattered, and the pale blue liquid spilled onto the rune core.

Amidst the hissing sound of corrosion, the red light flickered a few times before gradually dimming.

The countdown has stopped.

But the commotion just now was already too great.

Before Ian could even catch his breath, a clear, mocking voice came from the direction of the passage entrance.

"Tsk tsk, you're pretty quick."

Three people blocked the only exit.

Leading the group was none other than the provocative crimson wizard from the entrance.