The Scrap-Venture was no longer just a ship. Following the blueprints provided by the Furnace-Mind, Kenji had spent the last week "Echo-Forging" the hull. It was now encased in a reactive layer of Recursive Iron metal that healed its own cracks the moment they appeared.
"Depth check," Kenji commanded, his voice echoing with the authority of a Master.
"Ten thousand meters below the crust," Mateo reported, his hands flying across a holographic console that hummed with blue-neon light. "The pressure is enough to turn a standard Rank 5 Veteran into a pancake. If it weren't for the Stasis-Diamond's pressure-nullification, we'd be flat as a credit-chip."
They were descending into the Sunless Depths, a world-sized trench system that existed beneath the tectonic plates. Here, the System's reach was thin, but the monsters were thick.
[ZONE: THE SUNLESS DEPTHS (RANK S - HABITAT)]
[ATMOSPHERE: CRUSHING / ZERO-LIGHT]
[WARNING: PREDATORY MANA-DYNAMICS DETECTED]
"I don't like this place," Zola muttered, her geomancy feeling "heavy." "The earth down here... it feels alive. And it's hungry."
"That's because it is," Kenji said, staring into the pitch-black abyss beyond the reinforced viewport. "The Fourth Star is here the Scrap of Eternal Hunger. It doesn't just attract monsters; it creates a bio-magnetic pull that forces everything to consume or be consumed."
Suddenly, the ship's external lights flickered. Something massive passed by the window a shape so large it blocked the view for three full seconds. It wasn't made of metal. It was a mass of pale, translucent flesh and thousands of glowing, bioluminescent eyes.
[TARGET DETECTED: ABYSSAL LEVIATHAN (RANK 8)]
[STATUS: NEUTRAL / OBSERVING]
"A Rank 8?" Bjorn gripped his axe, his knuckles white. "We're in the territory of Grand Masters, and we're just bait in a tin can."
"Don't attack it," Kenji warned. "At this depth, kinetic energy creates vibrations that attract every scavenger within fifty miles. We go silent."
He placed his hand on the core-engine. [Skill: Void Shroud]. The ship's energy signature vanished, swallowed by the Abyssal Heart. They drifted into the Trench of the Forsaken a graveyard not of machines, but of ancient, forgotten species.
As they drifted, the walls of the trench began to glow with a sickly, pulsating violet light. Thousands of pods were embedded in the rock biological "recycling" centers where the Trench processed the waste of the world above.
"The System doesn't delete everything," Elara whispered, her frost-breath misting in the chilling air. "It dumps the 'biological errors' down here."
"Look at the scanners," Mateo said, his voice trembling. "The pods... they aren't just errors. They're human."
Kenji looked. Inside the translucent pods were figures in old Central Authority uniforms Enforcers, Scholars, even minor Nobles. They were being slowly digested, their cores being stripped of their "Ranks" and fed into a central point deeper in the trench.
"The Authority uses this place to harvest 'Clean Mana' from the people they discard," Kenji's eyes flared with a dangerous violet light. "This isn't a dungeon. It's a refinery."
[NEW QUEST: THE HUNGER'S END]
Objective: Infiltrate the Heart of the Trench.
Hidden Condition: Liberate the 'Unprocessed' Souls.
Suddenly, the ship was jerked violently to the side. A series of massive, fleshy harpoons had pierced the Recursive Iron hull. These weren't organic tentacles; they were Bio-Mechanical Anchors.
"Intruders detected in Sector 9," a cold, wet voice echoed through the ship's comms. "Scanning Ranks... Master Scrapsmith detected. Target identified as 'Prime Value.' Initiating Harvest."
From the darkness emerged the Hollow-Guard Rank 7 cyborgs that were more monster than man. They were the "Wardens" of the Depths, tasked by the High Council to oversee the Mana-Refinery.
"Kael, take the helm!" Kenji shouted. "Elara, Mateo defend the breach! Bjorn, Zola with me. We're going out there."
"Out there?" Mateo yelled. "The pressure will kill you!"
"I'm a Master Scrapsmith," Kenji said, a wicked grin appearing on his face. "I don't just fix metal. I'm going to 'Recycle' the pressure."
Kenji stepped into the airlock and engaged [Skill: Recursive Armor]. He didn't just put on a suit; he used the pressure of the ocean itself to "forge" a shell of compressed mana around his body.
The airlock opened.
Kenji stepped out into the crushing darkness, his iridescent eyes the only light for miles. The Hollow-Guards swarmed him, their bio-blades glowing with toxic energy.
Kenji didn't draw a sword. He reached out and grabbed the nearest harpoon-line.
[SKILL: ECHO-FORGE - KINETIC REVERSAL]
He took the thousands of tons of pressure pressing against him and funneled it through the line, sending a shockwave of "Condensed Gravity" back into the Warden's base.
The darkness of the trench was suddenly illuminated by a series of massive, underwater explosions.
"The buffet is closed," Kenji whispered into the water.