'Yeah, this thing is pretty much useless without the rune,' he concluded after not sensing anything.
He even broke the stand, half expecting it might unleash a curse, but nothing happened at all.
'Is that it? Is there any treasure here?' he mused inwardly as he started searching for more, hoping that he would uncover another one aside from the runes.
In movies, places like this would contain a lot of hidden treasure.
However—
After a thorough search of every corner, he sighed in disappointment.
'All that effort for nothing' he muttered, kicking a small pile of debris. 'I guess not everything can be like the movies.'
He took one last look around the place, ensuring he hadn't missed anything. Seeing that there was nothing left to find, he decided to leave.
With a wide motion of his wings, he flew toward the opening in the ceiling.
Emerging into the space above, he was greeted by a familiar scent of decay and death.
The world outside remained as bleak as ever, but he paid it no mind. His only concern was the miasma constantly obscuring his vision.
Without wasting any more time, he flew back in the direction of the train track.
The wind whipped around him as he soared through the miasma-filled sky, his wings cutting through the thick air with ease.
***
One Day Later.
BOOOM!
A loud explosion thundered, sending debris and sand flying in all directions.
When the dust settled, a crater marked the epicenter, and above it hovered a humanoid figure, embodying evil itself, like a harbinger of death.
[Ding!]
[Level + 1]
Reign leveled up, reaching 62, after destroying another nest.
So how did he end up here?
After flying for nearly a day, he found that the number of Nests in the area had grown a lot. Each was teeming with a large population of targets to kill.
He first noticed this when a unique monster attacked him. He quickly killed the monster without hesitation, then immediately traced its origin.
His strategy remained the same. He would find a nest, unleashed an area-of-effect attack, absorb the corpses for experience points and Dark Dust, and repeat the process.
They worked fast, using shovels and their hands to pack the soil and sand back into place around the base of the pole.
'This is my chance' Reign thought to himself.
Quickly shrinking down and using his Night Crawl ability, which was at level 50, he slowly inched toward the truck.
The area was dark because of the miasma, which helped him stay hidden.
Finding enough space under the truck, he slipped underneath and fit perfectly.
So why did he bother to do all of this ?
He saw the name on the truck: "Green Valley Military Research Department."
Putting the pieces together, he realized he had inadvertently taken the route to it.
Because of this, he decided to change his plan. He couldn't just waltz into a Tier 3 city without gathering proper information first.
For all he knew, powerful people could already be there. Especially after seeing the destroyed cities he had passed.
At the same time, there was also the information he got from Aiku.
According to her, the barrier of a Tier 3 city was much stronger, and anything that passed through it would be detected almost immediately.
After hanging around for a couple of minutes, the military personnel finally returned.
They quickly got into their vehicle as their air reserves were running low and drove back to the city, unaware that an uninvited guest was hitchhiking along with them.
The ride was quite bumpy due to the uneven sand, but he didn't mind at all.
In fact, he began to yawn from the boredom of the journey.
After 3 hours, they reached a platform .
It began descending slowly, revealing a tunnel. This tunnel was familiar to Reign because he had used something similar in CrestWood.
And, he knew there would be a checkpoint at the end, where the vehicles would be inspected. So he decided to quietly jump out of the Humvee without causing any commotion.
Using the ceiling like a spider, he capitalized on the darkness to quickly follow the them to the gated checkpoint.
When the heavy metal gate opened for the truck, he casually slipped through it.
'Too easy'
The similarities of the tunnel system made it easier for him to infiltrate it without drawing too much attention.
'I'm finally here,' he chuckled quietly to himself.
He had thought about coming here last, but it felt like fate had brought him here.