THE STRONGEST NEXULYTE

"No way! You mean Ivan is the strongest from your batch?"

Karin gasped.

"Not just the strongest, he totally dominated the ranking; no one stood a chance," Glen added proudly.

"How lucky we are to be on his team, trainees from the headquarters are always stronger than trainees from other branches. Do you know that the person who secured this mirror gate for the tower was a guy from the headquarters as well? His name was Alaric Vladimir. The instructors from our branch talked about him a lot," Karin expressed.

"Oh, Alaric? We heard of him too, but he's just so so; Ivan beat his record in the training room!" Glen mentioned with a straight nose.

"Unbelievable, he's so good?" Karin uttered.

"Of course, he's that good"

"Hey, Clint. What about you? Which tower branch did you come from?" Karin turned to the red-haired Clint, who still looked like he was closing his eyes, and asked, trying to drag him into the conversation.

"Leave me alone." Clint turned to her and mumbled softly before turning the other way, he wasn't interested in chatting.

Karin had an awkward look on her face for a moment before shaking it off and turning back to Glen and they resumed chatting. She asked Ivan and Ralph some questions as well; the two were more responsive than Clint was, although Ivan only gave one-word replies each time.

Ivan took a side glance at Glen, and a faint smile hung to the side of his lips; the boy was behaving just as before and wasn't as gloomy as one would have thought, considering what happened to his father; he would be able to heal faster if he kept the grief off his mind.

They got to know more about Karin while she chatted with Glen. The girl was 25 years old and came from a family of Nexulytes in Motuni. Their family specialized in weapon talents; a high percentage of the family possessed the weapon talent and trained in martial arts from a young; weapon talents were highly viewed by her family.

Being the granddaughter of the family head, she had been sent to the Owen Tower to join as this would strengthen the connection that her family had with one of the five biggest towers.

She was a very chatty person but knew when to get serious as well, Ivan even started to find her presence not bothering.

While they chatted, Eliot had controlled the A-22G3 and covered a distance of a kilometer away from the base.

They had come across other parties of Nexulytes and land carriers as they crossed different regions that had already been cleared, these regions were currently being turned into smaller bases.

They did not encounter any monsters on their way, and they reached Region 17 after a three-hour journey.

Region 17 was a mountain range where over ten tall mountains connected and stretched far into the distance, cutting through the forest.

In front of the first mountain was an enormous opening, its inside was pitch black that they were unable to see anything inside; the darkness of the cave was so formidable that it felt almost tangible.

The land carrier stopped right in front of the entrance.

"This entrance should be a tunnel that cuts through the entire mountain range; this should be our starting point," Ralph voiced out as he stared at the opening on the mountain.

Nodding his head, Ivan told Eliot to advance.

Eliot tapped a button on the control panel, and an opening appeared on top of the A-22G3 from which a small object rose.

Woom!!

The object burst out with a blinding light that immediately lit up the entrance of the cave, driving the darkness a couple of meters back.

With thwoooping sounds, the A-22G3 began to advance into the tunnel.

"Hehe, I can't help getting nervous now," Karin said with a nervous look on her face.

"Don't be nervous, we'll protect you," Glen said to her with an honest smile, and Karin smiled in return, a Mortal King saying he would protect a True King.

…..

The land carrier traveled for tens of meters into the tunnel as the tunnel continued to stretch before them, the walls of the tunnel narrowing and widening intermittently as the A-22G3 moved forward with its metal legs; climbing over small risings occasionally as the light of the land carrier reached further into the darkness.

Ivan and his group began to make out twisted shapes scattered across the floor of the tunnel.

Massive rocks were scattered all over the ground, some protruding like jagged teeth while others had tumbled from the ceiling, leaving gaping holes above.

"I'm not sure I like this place." Glen suddenly blurted out, Karin looked at him and covered her mouth to suppress a laugh.

Karin suddenly stopped laughing as her eyes caught something in front and she pointed.

"What is that?"

The light of the land carrier illuminated a cluster of skeletal remains scattered on the ground ahead. Some looked humanoid, while others were more monstrous, with long jaws and elongated limbs. Some looked like they had been here for a while, the bones brittle and withered and half buried under layers of dust and debris; others looked like they had been recently added to the collection of bones.

Clearly, they were not the first to get here.

"Looks like we found the whereabouts of the missing people," Eliot said grimly from the control seat. Apparently, there had been cases of people going missing during the past months.

Ivan remained silent but his eyes lingered on the bones from inside the cabin. Some of the skeletons were entwined and cracked as if their owners had died in a desperate struggle, others laid apart as if they had tried to flee from whatever had claimed them.

"Look," Ralph called out and pointed in a direction.

Ivan looked over, and his eyes narrowed; on the tunnel walls were long claw marks scratching deep into the rocks.

Just then the walls of the tunnel began to tremble slightly, causing the light of the land carrier to become unstable. All of them immediately sat straight and sharpened their gazes, they soon caught the source of the trembling as the ground ahead of them began to twist and shift slowly.

From below the rock surface, massive snake forms began to emerge. Their bodies were covered in jagged, stone-like scales that blended perfectly with the tunnel floor and made them almost impossible to notice until they moved; their heads were flat and broad, their eyes glowing with eerie light.

"Rock snakes!" Karin yelled in a low voice, the tension in his voice was clear.

There were at least five of these rock snakes, each as thick as a tree trunk and long enough to coil around the huge rocks on the ground twice. Their movements were slow and deliberate until the light from the land carrier shone on them, they reacted with sudden aggression.

One of them lunged at the land carrier with lightning speed, its mouth wide open, revealing sharp stone-like teeth.

"Hold on tight!" Eliot shouted as he gripped the controls of the land carrier and turned back with a lightning-speed maneuver.

Sadly, the walls of the tunnel were too chaotic for a fast maneuver.

Ivan, who had been observing for a while, slowly stood up.

"Prepare for battle" His voice rang out calmly.

Glen, Ralph, Karin, and Clint turned to him before getting up with serious expressions. They prepared to face the rock snakes head-on.