Early Evening - Mid Summer : The Ancient Wreckage, Southwestern Holy Kingdom

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*tap-ap* *tap-ap* *tap-ap* The echo of my footsteps could be heard as I walked out of the gate of the crawler.

It had been a couple hours since I finished exploring the shelter at that point, but I had been far from idle. Before turning off the reactor, I gave the workshop one last look through and relocated several of the more interesting items, like a handheld railgun and carbon 3D printer, to the living quarters, before finally having Ilios move several kilometers up the mountain with the Elder.

After heading back down to the crawler, I finally shut down the reactor and ensured that a new Hot Core was in place before finally doing a bit of cleanup and beginning the final preparations for moving the crawler.

For starters, everything inside the gate room was moved into the cave, from the piles of corrosion that used to be machines to mounds of organic material, loose tiles, and anything else that could move or lead to more deterioration in the future.

But as I worked on that, all the cables leading to the other areas of the shelter were disconnected, the wall of the crawler that was welded to the wall of the shelter was broken free, and most importantly, everything in regards to power and the reactor was made airtight.

That stuff alone took about 2 hours, but after finishing them, I only had one thing left. -The legs are already severely corroded, so they should break off when I pull on it.. all that's left is to create an exit!-

Currently, the dungeon had a main entrance only about 10 meters in diameter, far from big enough to fit the crawler through, but at the same time, couldn't be enlarged with any ease as it was a slow taper over several kilometers.

Another option I had was to bring it through the void, but that came with an extensive list of risks that I didn't want to take. -I still need to experiment more with vector compression... But regardless, this will definitely be the safest route...-

*flash-vWOOM* *SPLASH* The pool of water splashed as I changed to my dragon form and walked out through it.

It wasn't actually all that deep, maybe about 4 meters at the deepest point, but it was still just enough for what I wanted to use it for.

*blub* *splash-crash-splash* Standing at the deepest point of the puddle, I used quite a bit of magic to ever-so-carefully move the water behind me, toward the crawler, before lifting it up to form a wall covering an entirety of the cave like a plug. -That should be good...-

In short, it was a plug that would prevent the soon-to-come surge of heat and air pressure from causing any damage to the crawler. -It's unfortunate that I can't just use vacuum magic for this, but I don't think it'll be enough... Hopefully, this should be fine.-

Not wanting to continue to waste more of my limited mana by holding up the wall of water, I dug my claws into the stone and started preparing the spell.

I needed something that could bore a sizable hole through a tremendous amount of rock while not causing any damage to the surrounding area or causing the cave to collapse.

But while those were some big demands, I had just the spell. -Let's see what the limit of Ilios's magic is...-

*VWWOOOOOM* To be frank, this spell was so mana-expensive on this kind of scale that it was incredibly not worth using.

The cost of energizing photons to such an extreme degree while simultaneously accumulating more of them, beat out any other spell I had ever used by a long shot.

It was actually so expensive that even though I had a little under a fifth of my reserve available, I was worried. -After this, I won't have a whole lot of mana left... But at least I can use it as an excuse to crash at home...-

*tsssss* Some of the water in the wall started to boil as the air around me heated up. -Alright, let's start small hole, then make it bigger...- *tsk-crackle* The instant I looked up and opened my mouth, a thin beam, barely larger than a pencil, pierced through the top of the cave.

But it didn't stay thin for long.

*crackle-hummmmmmrrrrrrrrRRRRRMMMMMM* The beam slowly started to expand as it exponentially grew in volume and brightness until I eventually couldn't see anything at all without my aura.

But it kept growing.

*-RRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMM* Over the span of several seconds, the beam had grown from the width of a pencil to almost 50 meters.

Thankfully, I managed to ease the mana consumption a bit by making the very center of the beam hollow and expanding that with the outside, but after maintaining it all for several seconds, I was drained.

*RRRRrrrrrrmmmmmm* As the beam thinned, I opened my eyes again to see an extremely bright blue sky through a hole in the clouds, even though it was the evening before the warm glow of the sunset returned.

*ttssss-blub* The noise of water boiling and molten rock dripping off the ceiling filled the air as I looked up through the massive glowing molten hole above me.

"Hooh..." *fwooosh* Quickly letting out a slightly strained breath, I released the wall of water and let it splash down onto the molten ground. *blub-tss-POP-TSSSS*

But almost immediately, the scent of molten rock and iron was overpowered by something.

*sniff* "Huh?" It was an odd scent, but it wasn't bad. -Is it coming from those?- Leaning down toward the basilisk eggs floating by my feet, I took a quick sniff and had the scent punch my nose. "Hwoof!"

It smelled like nothing I had ever experienced, being somewhere between steak and sushi, with a spicy scent between horseradish and an extremely hot pepper.

It honestly smelled kind of good. -Did the eggs get boiled during my spell?- Leaning down again, I gave them a slightly closer look and contemplated what to do, but the next thing I knew, my mouth was watering, and a purely instinctual thought rang through my mind. -I wonder what they taste like...-

It had been so long since I had actually eaten anything that, the moment I smelled something decent, I craved it. -Eh, it's not like it'll hurt...-

*crunch* The brittle shell shattered as I crushed it with my tongue, releasing an incredible wave of spice through my mouth. It was on a completely different level of heat from any pepper or spices I had tried during my time traveling across the Western Continent, but it was delicious. -I'm not sure what that flavor is, but damn, is it good...-

It was a pleasant surprise that refreshed my energy and motivation after burning off such a tremendous amount of mana.

-I guess it can't hurt to relax for a minute... I need to let things cool off a bit anyways, right?- After glancing up at the nearly 45-meter-wide molten hole I had created, I plopped down into the pool of boiling water with a smile of satisfaction. *SPLASH-tssss* But something was missing.

-Hmm... I wonder if Ilios would like one...-

The evening sun quickly set below the horizon after that.

I ended up bringing the eggs outside to watch the sunset while sharing them with Ilios before eventually heading back into the cave to make some last-minute modifications to the crawler.

After using Ilios's spell, I no longer had enough mana and aura to comfortably carry the crawler with, while also using any form of thruster magic and vacuum magic, so I had to do things the old fashion way. -I need to carry it without any magic...-

But it was a little too big and inconvenient to do that, especially with how corroded the gate room was, but after some brainstorming, I had an idea. -Would the main circuit cable be strong enough to hold the reactor?-

Running through the floor and ceiling of the gate room were two massive cables with large transformers on each. It was the main circuit from the reactor, used to power everything inside the crawler and the shelter, but it was also the one thing that was untouched by corrosion. -It's layered with a mix of woven and layered carbon, and its connectors are pretty heavily reinforced around the reactor, so.. it should be strong enough... I think...-

With a bit of hesitation, I reached up and stepped on the gate, pushing the cables together. *creeeeaaaaak* The corroded room creaked as the ceiling and floor were pushed together, but it worked surprisingly well. -No cables broke...- "Phew..." Finally pulling my weight off it, I drove my tail through the ceiling and floor before wrapping it around the inside of the circuit cables. *CLANK-crumble*

From there, it was easy; all I did was pull it out toward the water, gather up as much hydrogen and oxygen as I could, and fly out of the cave with thruster magic. *pshHHHHHHHH* They were so low power that I was hardly moving up, but after several seconds I got to the edge of the hole and landed. *thump-crackle*

*creaaaak* The crawler still creaked from the tension on the cables, but thankfully it was holding. -It looks like it should last...- "Alright, Ilios. I'm going to fly this up to where Hera is. While I do that, I need you to watch over that idiot." I quickly motioned toward the Elder. -Him coming would make this trip a hell of a lot easier, but I can't leave the Elder alone, and I don't think he can survive in a vacuum like us...- It was unfortunate, but there was nothing I could do. "When I get back, we will head to the Temple, drop that loser off with Myles, and then go to Atlas. Sound like a plan?"

He immediately gave an excited nod as his tail started to wag.

"Haha, alright!" Lowering my head to his level, he came trotting over to lick my face and let me rub my cheek against his before finally running back to the Elder.

Then, with one last nod to him, I took to the air and quickly climbed straight up through the clouds.

Thankfully, once I got above them, the air was thin enough for me to release my vacuum magic to save mana and not worry about the drag being too much for the corroded shell of the crawler, but by the time I got to Hera, I was literally on fumes.

*RUUUUMBLE* *THUMP* As I finally set the crawler down on its rear and landed, I lowered my head and took a huge gulp of the dense ambient mana. "Hoooh..." -I feel sick...- Realistically, I had about 3 or 4% of my reserve left, which in the grand scheme of things was still quite a lot, but my body didn't care if it was an ocean or a puddle from the perspective of other dragons.

"~What did you bring this time?~" Hera floated out of the edge of the containment center with a curious tone in her voice.

But I didn't even bother creating air between us to speak. "Something that would make people think this mountain is a volcano..."

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