SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100 Chapter 767: Beneath Their Feet

The predators reached the pools at dawn.

Leon woke to a bellow that carried through the rock beneath him. When he looked out, Marauder packs were closing on the southern feeding ground from three sides. Stiltreavers waded in from the east, while the black-winged scavengers circled above the vents.

A pack rushed a drinking Moundback. Before it could drag the creature away from the pool, a Stiltreaver drove its beak into one of the attackers.

Within moments, steam and dust hid most of the fight.

Leon watched the ground beyond it. A broken stone channel ran from the southern pools toward a crack in the ruin’s wall. Parts had collapsed, and pale moss covered others, but the depression was continuous enough for a man to follow.

He’d have cover while the creatures were fighting. Once they settled, every stretch of open ground would be watched by something looking for its next meal.

He packed his bedroll, lowered the barrier, and left.

The noise grew worse as he approached. Marauder jaws cracked against shell, and the Stiltreavers’ thin cries cut through the deep hissing of the vents. He kept below the rises until he reached a boulder overlooking the channel.

It was roughly chest-deep and twice his width. Forty paces beyond its nearer wall, creatures tore at one another in the steam.

An illusion of empty stone would help. It would do nothing about his scent or the pressure of his feet.

Floor Five had made that lesson unpleasantly clear.

He watched the air first, following the steam as it drifted across the channel. Then he adjusted a light wind to carry his scent into that existing flow. He kept his aura close, covered himself with an image of the empty channel, and stepped down during the crash of a Moundback striking the ground.

The first stretch went well. Dust blew over the wall. Beyond it, a Stiltreaver flung a Marauder into a vent, and a column of steam burst upward. Leon used the noise to cross a collapsed section, placing his boots on bare stone rather than loose rubble.

He could hear enough fighting for a small war. None of it concerned him yet.

Then a long grey leg came down ahead of him.

The Stiltreaver stepped across the channel, heading toward a wounded Marauder on the far side. Its foot landed on the wall five paces away. Leon stopped before taking another step.

The creature stopped too.

Its neck turned slowly, the beak hanging over the channel. It hadn’t fixed on his outline. Instead, it lowered its head toward the stone where he’d last put his weight.

Walking quietly hadn’t been enough. The connected stone had carried something to those long feet.

Leon remained still as the beak descended. There was no time to work out how sensitive it was. A lightning strike would announce him to everything nearby. A spatial step would leave its own disturbance, and disappearing without dealing with the bird would leave it free to call or pursue.

Beyond the wall, a Marauder slammed into the wounded creature. The impact shook the channel.

Leon moved with it.

He caught the descending beak near its tip and held it shut, forcing the head down just enough to spoil the strike. As the Stiltreaver jerked against his grip, he released it and folded to the base of its neck. Its own movement and the surge of steam concealed part of the disturbance. He still had to finish quickly.

A narrow blade of compressed wind drove through the base of its skull.

The body sagged, but something pale stirred above the wound. Leon had already turned his attention there. He drew holy energy from its separate source and struck the forming Avatar before it could pull clear.

It writhed against the light. He held the attack until the shape broke apart, keeping the brief flare inside the cover of his illusion. There was no triumphant panel to wait for, and no reason to linger over the expenditure.

The Stiltreaver’s weight was falling toward the channel.

Leon braced it, spread ice along the legs, and froze its feet against the stone. For a moment the body rocked above him. He added support at the joints until it held, then slipped down beside the wall.

He looked back once. Through the steam, the dead creature appeared to be standing with its neck lowered.

He moved on, choosing each step to coincide with the heavier impacts outside. The disguise wouldn’t survive a close inspection. It only needed to last until he reached the wall.

The crack was wider than it had looked from the shelter. Pale blocks, each as large as a cart, had shifted apart along a fracture running above his head. He turned sideways and passed through.

The noise dropped to a muffled roar.

Leon stayed just inside for several breaths, listening for pursuit. Nothing followed. Only after checking the passage ahead did he release the illusion.

Smooth channels ran along the floor and up the walls. Stone pipes crossed the ceiling in orderly rows, unlike the broken masonry outside. When he rested his fingertips against one, a steady vibration passed into his hand.

The arrangement reminded him of the worked channels at Hollow Steps, though resemblance didn’t tell him how this system functioned.

He traced one shallow run toward the outer wall. Pale moisture gathered in it, moving toward a vent. Beyond the opening, steam rose from the feeding pools.

The creatures were drinking the discharge.

That explained why so many waited outside. The narrow passage wouldn’t admit a Moundback, but its food came out through the walls anyway. Leon checked the dust for smaller tracks before following the channels inward. A convenient entrance for him could be convenient for something else.

The light strengthened as the passage sloped down.

At first, a damp glow clung to the stone. Farther on, pale liquid moved through the channels, and small crystals gathered above its surface. Leon touched one with the tip of his knife. It was cold enough to chill the metal through to his fingers.

He loosened a grain from an exposed edge and caught it in a small container.

It was surprisingly heavy for its size.

He wanted to stop and examine it properly. Instead, he looked down the passage. The beads growing along the walls became larger with each turn, until clusters the size of grapes lit the stone around him.

Whatever supplied the outer pools was collecting here in a much denser form.

Leon followed the glow to a landing and a tall doorway. Beyond it, pale deposits rose against the far wall in banks higher than his head.

Between him and the deposits knelt a dark armored figure three times his height. One arm carried a hammer with a curved blade along its back. The other ended in a shield as tall as a door.

Leon took one step across the threshold.

Light appeared behind the figure’s visor, and its head lifted toward him.