The God-Level Scavenger

The Forest Trap

The iron wolf lunged straight at Amina's throat.

It did not make a sound as it leaped through the dark air, its heavy metal paws aiming to pin her to the dirt path. The green acid dripping from its metal teeth sizzled where it hit the wild grass. Amina did not freeze or fall backward. She pushed the silver master tablet behind her back with one hand while her other palm burst into a bright white ball of pure light magic.

She thrust her glowing palm directly into the metal chest of the beast.

The flash was blinding, sending a wave of hot light through the thick trees. The iron wolf let out a harsh mechanical click, its front legs buckling under the sudden force as it dropped back to the stone road. But the monster was a high-tier wild beast, far stronger than the low-level creatures inside the sector dungeon. The white light only scorched its outer shell, leaving its red optical eyes glowing brighter than before.

"Kofi, don't touch the mouth," Amina said, her voice fast and sharp as she scrambled away from the beast. "The acid will eat through standard leather defense in less than three seconds."

"I am not using leather," I said.

I rushed forward, my sixty-four points of agility allowing me to cut across the dirt before the iron wolf could turn its heavy head. I held my dragon scale blade with both hands, swinging it downward to strike the beast right on its front leg joint.

The dark blade hit the metal plates with a loud, ringing bang.

The impact vibrated right up my arms, shaking my shoulders, but my increased strength did its work. The dark dragon scale sliced cleanly through the hydraulic lines in the beast's knee. Black oil sprayed onto the dirt, and the giant iron wolf tilted to the side, losing its balance.

[Warning: Wild Beast core code identified.]

[Target: B-Rank Iron-Hide Wolf.]

[Extracting materials will cause severe stress to user system due to level gap.]

The blue text hovered near my eyes, but I ignored it. I stepped closer, raising my blade for another strike to the beast's neck, but a sudden low rumble came from the trees behind us.

Three more pairs of glowing red eyes appeared in the deep brush.

"We cannot fight all of them here," Amina said, her fingers tightening around the silver tablet. "The noise from the gate defenses must have dragged them toward the road. Follow me into the ravine. The rocky ground will slow down their tracking wheels."

She did not wait for my reply. She spun around and ran toward a steep rocky slope that dropped down into the dark neutral zone. Her long white dress was torn to her knees now, but her movements were smooth and practiced. She had spent months studying the layout of these outer lands using the council records while Tariq thought she was just playing with jewelry in his sitting room.

I ran right behind her, my ears tracking the heavy clanking sounds of the iron wolves pursuing us down the hill.

We slid down the loose gravel, entering a narrow stone trench where the walls rose high on both sides. The air down here felt old and dusty. This was the area outside the city grid where the old world used to dump its broken war machines hundreds of years ago.

Amina stopped near a large iron hatch built into the stone wall of the trench. She shoved the silver tablet into a slot on the frame, and her light magic surged into the wire paths.

"Open up," she whispered, her brow furrowing with effort.

With a heavy screeching sound, the iron door slid open by two feet. We squeezed through the narrow gap, and I slammed the heavy metal door shut just as the first iron wolf crashed against the outside, its acid melting the edges of the frame.

I dropped my sword and sank to the floor, my chest heaving. The red alarm lights from the city wall were still visible through a small glass slit in the door.

"You took a massive risk," I said, looking up at her face in the dark room. "If Tariq had fired that flame block at the gate, you would have been caught."

Amina leaned against the metal wall, her light magic fading until the room was almost completely dark. "Tariq is a coward, Kofi. He only attacks people he thinks are weaker than him. The moment he saw you walking out of that dungeon with an A-rank blade, his mind broke. He knows his power is a lie."

She looked down at the tablet in her lap, her fingers tracing the smooth silver edge. "I had to do it. The guild was going to clear the lower sector to find you. If I did not steal the master key to stop Vance, old man Jalo and everyone you know would be dead by now."

"You lied to the commander," I said. "You told him the council arrested Tariq."

"And now Tariq knows I am the one who fooled him," Amina said, a small, cold laugh escaping her lips. "He will tell his father, and the entire family guild will be hunting us through these mountains by dawn. I can never go back to the city."

I reached out, my rough hand touching her fingers. "You don't have to go back. We have the system now. I can extract enough power from these outer lands to build something stronger than his family's guild."

Suddenly, the silver tablet in her lap began to hum.

The screen turned a bright, angry red, and a loud mechanical voice spoke from the internal speaker, echoing through the small metal room.

"Master key override activated by central tower," the voice said. "Location tracked to Sector 4 outer ravine. Self-destruct sequence initiated. Three minutes remaining."

The doors around us locked with a heavy click. A thick steel security grille slid down over our only exit hatch, trapping us inside the small control box.

"The drive is locked," Amina said, her voice dropping as she tried to pull the tablet out of the slot. It was stuck fast, the internal magnets holding it tight as the timer counted down. "Kofi, the database is going to explode, and it will take this entire underground room with it."