Chapter 126 | Hidden Cave Tower

Chapter 126: 126 | Hidden Cave Tower

The next morning, Andrew arrived at the academy earlier than usual. The air was crisp with the scent of dew, and the corridors were nearly empty. His footsteps echoed softly as he walked toward the main building.

Barely a dozen steps in, he sensed a subtle ripple in space three meters to his left. With his perception spanning three hundred kilometers, the distortion was impossible to miss. It wasn’t hostile, so he ignored it and kept walking.

A moment later, a hand landed on his shoulder.

"Hey, kid."

Andrew turned with practiced calm. Principal Constance had stepped out of the spatial distortion as though emerging through a curtain. His expression balanced fatherly concern with barely restrained anger.

"I heard what happened during the expedition," Constance said. "John told me you almost died. You all right?"

Andrew nodded. "Yeah. I’m fine."

The principal studied him for a moment before his expression hardened. A chilling killing intent rolled off him, causing the dew on nearby railings to evaporate.

"The Crimson family," he said coldly. "I’ll make sure they pay for this."

The pressure eased slightly.

"We still need them to provide the treasures for the upcoming tournament, so I’ll make them pay triple what they were contracted for. That’s the least I can do." His jaw tightened. "They deny any connection to the Bloodseed assassin, so officially we can’t touch them. Unofficially..." A dangerous smile appeared. "If you want, I can casually slap the patriarch around a bit."

Andrew chuckled.

"Thanks, Principal, but I’ll settle that debt myself."

Constance stared at him for a second before bursting into laughter.

"That’s exactly what I wanted to hear!"

He gave Andrew another firm pat on the shoulder.

"Go freshen up. I’ll gather everyone tomorrow at eight. The others still have a day before they’re due back, so get some rest. Then enter Heaven’s Domain and level up." His tone turned serious. "The stronger you become, the more this situation favors you."

Andrew nodded.

He needed to level up quickly.

The tournament would pit him against the academy’s strongest students, and underestimating any of them could be fatal. After that came the secret room, where a single mistake meant certain death.

He also had unfinished business in Heaven’s Domain.

First, he needed to find a suitable location for a shrine. Without one, his resurrection ability was worthless.

Then there was the blacksmith’s son. The rescue mission remained incomplete, and he had no intention of abandoning it.

Giving the principal one last nod, Andrew headed inside.

A few minutes later, Andrew entered his private residence and closed the door. The silence was a welcome change.

He washed up, changed out of his travel-worn clothes, and for a brief moment, Jasmine crossed his mind.

He pushed the memory aside.

Now wasn’t the time.

Sitting on the edge of his bed, he closed his eyes and entered Heaven’s Domain.

The transition was instantaneous.

One moment he was in his room; the next, he stood exactly where he had left off.

Darkness still blanketed the area, and the massive cliff towered before him.

Something felt off.

This section of the cliff was unnaturally smooth. While the surrounding rock was rough and weathered, this surface was almost perfectly flat, its lighter stone etched with faint lines that looked anything but natural.

Andrew ran a hand across it. The stone was polished, lacking the coarse texture of the surrounding cliff. His Omniscient perception confirmed what he already suspected.

There was a hollow space behind it.

His eyes narrowed.

"This isn’t a cliff," he murmured.

"It’s a door."

Judging by the weathered debris around it—crumbled mortar, fragments of worked stone, and the faint remnants of decorative carvings—the hidden entrance had been here for centuries.

He searched the surface carefully, examining every inch for a hidden mechanism.

Nearly ten minutes later, he found it.

A hairline crack at chest height, slightly left of center.

Almost invisible.

He pressed a finger into it.

Click.

The sound was soft but distinct—a mechanical click that echoed through the stone like a heartbeat. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the entire smooth section of cliff wall trembled, a deep vibration that Andrew felt through the soles of his boots.

Slowly, with the grinding of ancient stone against ancient stone, the wall began to open. The smooth section split down the middle, the two halves sliding apart to reveal a dark opening that led into the mountain’s interior. A breath of cold, stale air rushed out, carrying with it the scent of dust, age, and something else—something faintly metallic and electric, like the air before a thunderstorm.

The moment the entrance opened, system notifications exploded before Andrew’s eyes.

[First Discovery Achievement!]

You have discovered an unknown region.

Rewards:

↳ +100 World Fame

↳ +20 Beginner Village Fame

↳ +10,000 EXP

[Area Discovered]

↳ Forgotten Godfall Cave

Andrew froze.

Even the system seemed didn’t know about this place? What the hell is going on?

The notification was unusually sparse. There was no level range, no monster information, no resource list—only a name and a reward.

That alone was alarming.

The Forgotten Godfall Cave contained almost no data within Heaven’s Domain’s database.

Which meant one of two things.

Either no player had ever discovered this place before.

Or the system itself could not fully understand it.

Neither possibility was comforting.

The metallic scent lingering in the air, the ancient mechanisms that still functioned after centuries of abandonment, and the complete absence of records all pointed toward the same conclusion.

This place existed outside the normal rules of Heaven’s Domain.

Without hesitation, Andrew stepped inside.

The entrance corridor was narrow and dark, carved from smooth gray stone polished to an almost mirror-like finish.

Using Omniscient Perception, Andrew quickly mapped the passage.

Thirty meters ahead, it opened into a much larger space.

When he stepped through the exit, he stopped in place.

The sight before him stole his breath.

From outside, the structure had appeared to be little more than part of the mountain itself.

Inside, it was something else entirely.

A colossal cave tower.