I wanted to commemorate with a bigger chapter, but I know that won't really be good for you all.
Bigger chapters often mean bigger expenses for lesser words, in simpler terms, it's not efficient for the reader.
So I was thinking of doing a small mass release if possible.
Peace!
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/Hold.../
He approached the rod, holding it with a bear hug, albeit his arms barely covered a fifth of its circumference...
Even so, there was no way he would back down, where else would he go if not forward?
This was a pretty simple problem, if he could not solve something stationary like this, then he should abre farewell to his journey.
And although it may be harsh of him to always push himself so much, he felt obliged to do so given the opportunity he was given to even be here.
In short, Dale wasn't leaving... At least not consciously.
"URG!"
/Tremble…/
His legs shaking, digging into the ground, Dale tried to lift the metal rod from the ground, but no matter what he did, it didn't budge.
The only thing that seemed to move was the dirty ground beneath his foot as it cracked under the strength of his legs.
But there was a reason for this.
'Shit… I don't think I'm not strong enough… I just can't have a grip on this.'
Each rod had a circumference about the size of his arms stretched, and they were primarily smooth, giving him close to no grip, everything he had was the attrition of his hands.
He could remove his chest armor to increase the contact between his bare skin and the metal, but if he did so, his strength would decrease significantly due to the loss of Stats.
And even if he could grip them, how much was he supposed to raise them?
If he held the rod from the lowest point he could and lifted it as far as his arms allowed, that would barely lift the rod 3 meters off the ground.
But those were unrealistic numbers, Dale could not hold the rod so close to the ground, much less raise it so far up.
A meter would already be much in ideal conditions.
"Huff… Dammit." He said as he breathed heavily, whipping sweat from his forehead as he analyzed the rod
'There's no way I'm doing this with my current strength.'
'I imagine it's mostly due to the angle, but I have to admit, with what I can currently do, lifting these up one by one like this is impossible.'
'So... Sigh, I didn't want to resort to this…'
Dale knew Testros wouldn't be helping him unless he could not deal with this.
And if he did, he would definitely be a bit disappointed.
Something Dale could not accept.
/CRACK!/
With a sharp expression Dale crouched, removing his gloves before stabbing his hands into the metal with a cold expression.
/SPLIT!/
'ARG! Shit, I think I broke my nails…'
Even with his strength, there were still several weak points in his body.
By gathering Mana on his fingertips and blasting it outward as he stabbed forward, he made a small pocket he could then grip, but in the process, metal splinters blasted onto his fingertips, breaking his nails as they pierced beneath it, causing him a great deal of pain as he felt the warmth of his blood sleek through his fingers.
However, with his blood came an opportunity... He could now hold onto something, allowing him to lift the rod up with ease...
Or at least as far as the metal itself allowed to, as it wasn't designed for anyone to hold it like that, as seen by the fact the metal deformed just by having him hold it up.
The entire weight of the metal was being supported by two small insitions within its husk, the pressure on those points was immense, so Dale had to be fast before he lost all his progress due to the metal suddenly ripping apart.
"Here… I… GO!" Dale exclaimed as he raised his hands and flexed his but cheeks, throwing the rod upward with everything he had as every muscle in his body sprung into action
/CRUNK!/
/Sparks!/
The sound of metal grinding and twisting echoed violently as sparks were released from the base of the rod as rust and other materials scrapped against each other.
A century of rust and corrosion prevented the rod from smoothly sliding upward, almost bringing it to a complete halt the moment Dale let go of it.
Unfortunately, those weren't strong enough to hold the rod into place, otherwise, this task would've been many times easier.
"Shit."
He quickly realized that as he witnessed the rod come to a halt...
/Descend…/
Before 'slowly' going down again.
"URG!"
Once again without hesitation, Dale blasted the metal with his fingertips, digging into it as he prevented it from moving down, holding it with all his might.
"HUPP!"
With another smooth movement, he stabilized his posture before he pushed the metal rod upwards once more…
...
/CRUNK!/
He repeated this process several times before the rod finally got out of the ground!
For the first time, Dale saw the end of this torture, and energy suddenly flowed through his flesh!
"HA!"
He quickly rushed beneath the rod, supporting it like a pillar.
And it was now that he realized that the rod was more of a stake that plunged onto the earth with a somewhat narrow tip, which made the task of holding it from the base much harder...
However, he held onto with as if his life was on the line, which wasn't far from the truth.
If he let go of the rod, there was a chance he could fall into the hole and worse, be crushed by the descending might of this terrific machine.
It would be a very pathetic death... Imagine dying in the ruins of something that had been abandoned for more than a hundred years...
There was now only one thing left for him to do… To throw the rod all the way to the ceiling… Twelve meters above the ground.
/Gulp…/
He gulped dry as sweat fell from his forehead, his breathing quickened as he felt small streaks of blood slide across his arms.
"I… Need a time off…" He said with a tired expression as his body started to faintly glow
'I can't control this very well... So I'll... Just blast it all!'
"HUPP!"
With the little he knew about the control of the forces within his body, Dale moved the Mana within himself, letting it cruise through his veins into his arms and legs as he exploded upward with great momentum, pushing the rod upwards!
/CRACK!/
/BAM!/
/CA-TCHONG!/
The rod crashed against the ceiling and the sounds of metal coiling and creaking echoed all around as small platforms started moving on their own, locking the rod in place and preventing it from falling.
And albeit the ancient metal made a few strange creaking noises, nothing seemed to be falling out of place so Dale took it as a win!
"Haa… Haa…"
His hands bleeding and his body stiff, Dale lay on the ground as Testros moved next to him.
"Good job." He said with a large smile as he looked at Dale
"T… Thank… s…"
"Three more to go."
"..."
Dale suddenly had the urge to break everything around him but his rationale kept him at bay.
He didn't even have the strength to cry.
…
/CRUNK!/
/CLACK!/
/Thud…/
"Uhggg…"
With one final push, Dale lifted the last rod, freeing the gates and with it, the people trapped on the other side.
Tired and numb, Dale fell to the ground, and this time, he did not get up.
If someone were to see him right now, they might've thought he had just sacrificed his life as he collapsed lifelessly on the cold hard ground...
"Dale? Get up, you still need to open the gates." Testros added as he crossed his arms
"Give me… A few… Minutes to b-b… Breath."
"You can rest later on the way back, now we need to move."
"Kill me… Instead…"
'I don't want to get up… I can't feel my fingers…'
"I know you're tired, but you're the only one that can move these gates, so please."
"The longer we take, the more work we'll have later."
"..."
Seeing Testros' deep expression, Dale stopped throwing a fit and sulking, getting up from the ground.
In the process as he took a potion from his inventory, pulling the cork as his arms trembled a bit.
'Welp... I pushed myself a bit too much...'
'My injuries aren't serious, but the tip of my fingers are a mess, I feel like I just performed extremely hard at the Gym.'
'I'll drink a simple Regenerative Concoction and a Stamina recovery potion, it won't have much of an effect now but it'll make the difference later.'
'I don't know if I'll be facing anything later down the line, so I have to think about it and prepare accordingly.'
'Even if I have to make use of... Well... Special "supplements"...'
/Gulp!/
"Haa… No matter how much Yumi tries… This still tastes like ass."
/Chuckle.../
"Never tell that to her else you know what'll happen." Testros replied with a small smirk
"I'm not that daring…" Dale replied with a smile
'I would switch being her lab rat for what I'm currently doing, even if last time I ended up spending an entire afternoon in the bathroom...'
/Knock.../
"Is everything alright?" Sarferato asked as he tapped his cane on the gate
"I just rested for a bit… Haa..." Dale said as he wiped his mouth
"What now?" He asked as he looked up
'Better act before those pins come crashing down, if they do I don't think I'll be able to lift them back up.'
'More due to my mental strength and not my physical one...'
"Since you lifted all of the pins, you just need to slide the doors open."
"I... See... But I think... We have a problem."
"They're completely smooth." Dale said with a numb expression
"There's a junction point in the middle, you'll see a white line painted over it."
"Just make an opening if you can't see one and push the gates aside, it'll cause substantial damage but there isn't much we can do about it."
'Not like you haven't caused enough damage, a little bit more won't make a difference.'
"... Alright." Dale said as he moved to the white line
'Moving the pins was already hard, now I have to push the gates… They seem several dozen times heavier if not hundreds of times... Sigh.'
'At least I don't have to lift it but only slide it to the side, so there shouldn't be a problem like before.'
'It only needs to be big enough for people to crawl, the rest is easy.'
"Hey, if I apply a bit of force, the defensive mechanism won't activate, right?"
"Well... No..."
/BAM!/
/CRACK!/
Without hesitation, Dale punched the gate, bending the metal with a powerful impact.
This made Testros' expression twitch, but he remained silent.
/Smile.../
And seeing his plan worked, Dale smiled from ear to ear.
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Notes
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Peace!
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