The moment they stepped through the doorway at the end of the cave passage, a wave of scorching air struck them, the area before them resembled a massive underground chamber. Its walls were made from black stone mixed with rusted metal.Enormous chains hung from the ceiling, while broken assembly lines stretched into the darkness.Far beneath them, glowing streams of molten metal flowed through deep trenches carved into the ground.Large gears continued turning within the walls, despite the fact that no one appeared to be operating them.One by one, they fully emerged into the enormous space, which looked like an abandoned factory.However, a faint clanging sound echoed throughout the chamber, causing them to advance silently with Jake moving all the way to the front showing intentions of leading the way.All of a sudden, Jake raised his left hand into the air and balled it into a fist, causing everyone behind him to stop.He closed his left eye while his right iris flashed with blue

Before Jake reached the location, he dropped into a slide across the ground, during that movement, he shifted the Cryo-Launcher into his left hand while using his right to draw one of the Fragment Guns strapped to the side of his leg.His feet slammed against one of the pillars nearby, bringing him to an abrupt stop and placing him face-to-face with one of the Scrap Hounds, the repulsive force released by the sudden stop from his special ability struck the hound just as it attempted to bite him, knocking it one or two steps backward.At that moment, Jake didn’t care how little distance existed between them, all that mattered was that the brief separation gave him an opportunity to fire without interference.Still sitting on the ground after his slide, Jake steadied himself and readjusted his aim, as his Combat Suit Ai had already equipped the Legendary Fragment Gun Damage Implant for him as the golden colored implant took its place among one of the two spaces in his implant holes. (H

This time, Aiden and Gideon moved quickly, following the others without hesitation because neither of them wanted to be left behind again.That last confrontation had thrown their hearts into a state of pure adrenaline, pounding continuously inside their chests, they had been dragged into a fast-paced battle that neither of them had been able to fully comprehend at the beginning.Even Gideon, who had looked down on Toby before entering the gate and felt envious because he believed he deserved the Missile Racks more, had already learned to suppress that feeling.He had initially convinced himself that the only reason Toby received such weapons was because he belonged to Jake’s team.However, since entering the dungeon, neither Gideon nor even Aiden had managed to perform at Toby’s level.Bruises now covered Gideon’s fingers and hands, and they weren’t even injuries he had received from fighting, but marks he had sustained while desperately trying to escape with his life earlier.Within

It was clearly not moving like a normal Commander-rank beast, which caused Jake to pull up its analysis to understand why it was such a problem.[Scrap Hound][Race: Mutated Demonic Beast][Rank: Commander (Peak)][Affinity: Metal][Special Trait: Retractable Whip Tail, Magnetic Jaw]After its status appeared before Jake, he finally understood why the beast was so troublesome.It was a creature on the verge of becoming a Lord-rank beast.Although it was still within the Commander rank, but it was clearly far superior to others of the same level, and the fact that it had even lasted much longer than the other Commander-rank Scrap Hound said everything.But Jake was not about to let that stop him from putting it down.They had been fighting for a while now, and after shooting it at close range and blowing off one of its tails, the beast was no longer as strong as before. It was tired, wounded, outnumbered and bleeding out.All Jake needed was another chance to hit it a few more times.W

Lionel had expected Zack to be furious that he had allowed Jake to enter the gate with only one team, along with two students who were still enrolled at the academy.However, ever since they returned, Zack had only asked Jake to walk with him, seeing that Lionel dismissed his Combat Suit, believing Zack wouldn't be too hard on Jake.There were several reasons for that.The first was the fact that Jake had just proven he was fully capable of leading his team through a High Uncommon-rank gate.Normally, multiple teams entered gates together so that any unforeseen circumstances could be dealt with immediately by the many Awakened present.That had always been the standard practice across the various regions, only a select few elite units were permitted to enter gates with just a single team. Such groups were officially recognized as Special Squads or Special Units.The Region F military had never even considered creating one.It hadn't been long since Zack and the other captains had rea