Tom was well aware of the disadvantages of going into a possibly dangerous situation without being fully prepared. He had almost spent twelve hours in the Secverse, only taking occasional breaks. So he decided to take an hour and a half nap, a one-full sleep cycle for maximum efficiency. As he didn't dare to wait until tomorrow to explore the mountains, so he had to adjust to the circumstances.

Time was of the essence. He was sure he wasn't the only one heading for the center of the zone, so he was completely willing to sacrifice his sleeping schedule for possible gains.

To Tom's relief, he found a new advantage of the awakened mind, he tried to force himself to sleep, and it worked.

Once Tom woke up, he felt surprisingly good. "It sure is nice to have this much control over my body."

Tom wasn't hungry at all, but he still forced himself to eat. He realized that he had completely ruined his eating and sleeping schedule during the last week, but he didn't care, as it was a small sacrifice to pay for power. After that, he visited the bathroom and logged back into the Secverse.

Tom looked around but didn't see any people around. Thankfully no one else had yet made their way toward the center. However, he was sure that it wouldn't last. People would notice that there wasn't anything to fight, only ridiculous amounts of natural resources to build a city.

After that, Tom started immediately descending into the valley. To his surprise, the grass that covered the whole valley was a lot higher than it seemed, as it actually reached up to his knees.

The moment he noticed that, he got a bad feeling about the valley, so he took out his hammers. Now that he thought about it, he should have walked with them from the start, but luckily he hadn't had a need for them.

As Tom started pushing through the grass. He realized that the mountain was actually large when compared to the mountains around it, as the valley was so deep that it was almost reminiscent of a crater.

Tom's foot hit something hard and he noticed that there were rocks hidden among the grass. Which caused Tom's bad premonition only to rise. He started looking downwards much more warily every time he spotted a rock he circled around it.

The closer he got to the mountain, the more impressive it seemed. It was like an unpenetrable fortress that had stood the test of time for countless millennia, never giving up nor bending at all, weathering all that was thrown against it. Tom realized that those impressions weren't his, so he clamped down on his mind with his willpower. It took him quite a long to notice the mental effect, as it wasn't inherently negative, he was only feeling awe.

But this only lifted Tom's spirits, as the mental effect had been effective enough to even affect his awakened mind. So there had to be something special about this place, not just the fact that it looked impressive.

The closser Tom got to the mountain, the more often he wound himself getting impressed by it. But as he was ready for it, he managed to free himself of it almost immediately. However, it was draining his willpower at an impressive rate. He did consider letting the mental effect just affect him, as it didn't do anything inherently negative to him, only made him impressed, but he didn't dare to do it. He decided it was better to use his willpower than to gamble if there were any dangers hidden within the effect.

After spending half an hour navigating around the rocks hidden in the grass, he finally arrived at the foot of the mountain. And to his imminent surprise, he wasn't ambushed by anything in the valley.

Tom stared at the mountain rising above him. He could barely see anything else than the mountain that stood proud before his eyes. There were multiple caves on the mountainsides. Some were at ground level, and others were tens of meters above it.

Tom surveyed the holes for a while, but he couldn't see any movement in them nor anything that stood out. They all headed into the mountain until he could see only darkness.

He rummaged through his backpack before taking out a light stone that was fitted into a headlamp strap. Tom was extremely glad that he had visited the traders, as now he didn't have to hope that he got lucky and there were light sources inside the cave.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Tom equipped himself with the light stone, and the hammers, rolled three meters of rope around his torso and checked that his knife was within his reach on his waist.

Then Tom hid his backpack inside the tall grass in the valley, as he didn't believe that he would be able to dodge any attacks if he had to carry it around with him. There were clearly downsides to maximizing his carrying capacity.

Now being a lot lighter and mobile, Tom made his way to the nearest cave entrance, heaved a deep breath, and walked in.

Tom checked everywhere as he walked in, especially the walls, he even pocked at one suspicious spot with his hammer. He didn't wish to get surrounded like the last time when he headed straight down into a cave, so he was a lot more careful this time.

Tom had walked for ten minutes at an incredibly slow pace. The cave acted like a maze, he had ran into multiple turns, but Tom kept choosing the tunnels that led downwards while marking the way where he came from. He had been staring at the wall all the time, waiting for the moment they came to life, but it hadn't happened. It was eerily quiet inside the cave, the only thing he could hear was his own steps echoing from the walls.

After another ten minutes, Tom was starting to believe that there wasn't anything in the walls. He had probably hit the wall ten times, as he had thought he saw a movement. And he had actually managed to hit anything other than rock zero times.

After another twenty minutes, Tom noticed how more and more tunnels were joining together like all paths were leading to the same destination, which only increased Tom's warines.

But still, he hadn't spotted any threats. Tom was starting to get confused "What is this place? There's nothing else than tunnels."

However, Tom finally saw light coming from behind the next bend. He had finally reached a place that had something else than just tunnels carved into the rock.

Tom warily peaked behind the corner, and he saw a tennis court-sized circular chamber. The walls were full of light stones, and the floor had brown lines running toward an obelisk that stood in the center of the chamber. It was just like the one in the city, it had no marking on it and was made of black metal that Tom didn't recognize.

He also saw how seven other tunnels were going outwards from the chamber. Tom looked everywhere before he walked to the obelisk and placed his hand on it.

_____________________________

Mountain zone Teleport point.

Activate?

YES? NO?

_____________________________

Tom almost activated it reflexively, but he managed to stop himself. He realized that this had been way too easy. So naturally, he expected this to be a trap.

So Tom checked all the tunnels, and he noticed that three of them were like the one he came from, going slightly upwards and multiple tunnels joining with it. But the four others were dark holes that went downwards at an extremely steep angle. He couldn't see more than a couple of meters into them as they spiraled downwards.

It didn't take long before Tom decided to explore the caves going downwards, as if he needed to place a trap somewhere, it would be there. Well, of course, after the walls.

Tom started walking the spiraling path downwards. He was on high alert, scanning every nook and cranny, but there was nothing.

As he got deeper and deeper, he could start feeling something in the air. It was almost like the air itself was sand? So Tom focused his mind and drew a tiny sliver of energy into himself. He examined it and soon realized that it was something like earth mana? Tom was starting to get scared, if the air had this much ambient mana in it, then just what kinda monster occupied this hole?

Tom walked through one more corner, and he was faced with another chamber. However, this wasn't like the last one, the chamber was anything but empty. He could see mounts of different kinds of ores spread across the chamber floor, there had to be at least twenty of them, and in the middle, he could see one that was twice as big as everything around it.

"So I go and activate the teleporter, and these golems all attack me, right?" Tom asked no one in particular. Tom was at least glad to see how the three other tunnels connected here, or so he hoped.

Tom didn't believe in his ability to win this battle alone, no matter how dirty tricks he used. "I could probably go to the city and gather some people to help me. Or even better, I could sell this activation to some of the groups who want the governor position." The more Tom thought about it, the more he liked the idea. He would get money and help to clear this place. The very definition of a win-win situation.

However, his greedy side didn't relish the idea of sharing this place with anyone else. And he liked even less the idea of giving up, even if it would be a tactical retreat. However, during his time in Secverse, each time he achieved something, he had done something reckless or dangerous. He was starting to appreciate the principle of no risk, no reward more and more. Of course, he had done his best to minimize the risk whenever he could, but the danger had always been there, lurking behind the corner. And now he was considering retreat even before testing the waters? It didn't sit well with him.

He could feel how his fighting spirit was rising. "Well, maybe I'll just take out one of them. I can always run away later, as I am faster than them, aren't I?"

But before he did anything, he had to prepare. He might be more reckless now, but at least he still understood the importance of stacking the deck in his favor.