God-Tier Extraction Talent: Reincarnated in a Game-like World!
Chapter 37: Strong and Capable Gabriel

Chapter 37: Strong and Capable Gabriel

"Now how do we open this door?" Sophie muttered as she ran her fingers across the smooth, storm-gray surface of the stone slab. There was no handle. No hole. No inscription. Just one single square-shaped brick, slightly protruding from the rest of the mountain face.

Liam slammed his fist against it and said, "Maybe it’s pressure-based?"

"You asshole! Have you forgotten what happened yesterday?!" Alice snapped, her face red with anger.

"Manners, Alice," Lilly, who was much older, reprimanded softly.

Alice frowned and decided to step back.

Scarlet narrowed her eyes and traced a finger along the edge of the door, trying to feel for a hidden push button or something.

A small frown appeared on her delicate face when she didn’t find anything.

Meanwhile, from behind, Gabriel didn’t make a move yet. He simply stood there, analyzing the door and looking around.

In his past life, Gabriel had explored a few ruins. And in a sense—because Scarlet had died early during the convergence—it could be said he was more experienced than everyone else.

Soon, his eyes flickered when he caught something.

"Step back. Let me try something," he said in a deep voice that instinctively made everyone move aside for him.

Gabriel crouched in front of the door, his greatsword casually stabbed into the ground beside him. He brushed the dust off the square tile with a piece of torn cloth.

Everyone watched with intrigue.

"What is it?" Scarlet asked curiously.

"Look closely," Gabriel said calmly. "This tile isn’t a button. It’s a sensor. And not a simple one either—it’s linked to a trial mechanism hidden behind the wall."

He placed his hand against the square.

A faint whirr echoed inside the stone. Light-blue glyphs blinked once—then disappeared.

Gabriel smirked, his eyes lighting up.

"My suspicion was right. This is a cipher door."

Alice raised a single brow. "A what?"

"A cipher door is a type of ancient mechanism," Scarlet explained. "Unlike normal locks, it doesn’t open with keys or brute force. It requires solving a magical puzzle—usually based on mana patterns, energy resonance, or logic traps."

"Oh..."

"Tsk. This is what happens when you only play games and sleep all day," Lilly sneered, disappointment written across her face.

Alice wanted to retort, but in the end, kept quiet to save face.

"These cores weren’t powering the golems. They were keys," Gabriel said, drawing their attention back to him.

He stood and picked up a handful of monster core shards from the fallen golems. The fight hadn’t been a defense—it was a scavenger test.

He took three core shards and stacked them vertically like puzzle pieces.

Everyone watched him work with such purpose, it felt like he had done this before.

Alice couldn’t help but furrow her brows. She remembered asking if this was his first time, but what he was displaying currently was...

"The door reads mana frequency resonance—each piece fits into a pattern," Gabriel explained. He slammed the makeshift puzzle onto the square block.

Nothing happened.

Scarlet raised a brow. "So... wrong combination?"

Gabriel didn’t flinch.

"No. Just not enough core."

He stepped back, picked up a golem arm, and snapped it in half like a twig. From within, a compressed crystal flickered faintly.

He pressed the core into the center of the tile. The ground rumbled. Everyone held their breath, activating their skills and gripping their weapons.

Suddenly, under their watchful gazes—

BOOM!

A loud sound echoed, and the slab-like stone door slowly split open, revealing an endless darkness on the other side.

"I-it worked... he really did it," Casiee mumbled in disbelief as she stared at Gabriel.

Sophie’s eyes flashed with a strange gleam as she looked at his broad back with a thoughtful expression.

’Not only is he immensely powerful—he’s also very resourceful.’

The gazes of everyone now held a degree of respect, even Liam. In this world, the fastest way to win hearts was through strength and intelligence—and somehow, in such a short time, Gabriel had demonstrated both.

"Could he be a hidden genius?" Liam mumbled, a dazed expression on his face.

"Are you guys just going to stand there, or head in and get this ruin exploration done already?" Gabriel called out as he slowly stepped forward.

Scarlet stared at his back, her expression unreadable and her thoughts unknown.

After a while, she nodded at the others, and they headed inside.

When Gabriel passed through the door, it felt as if he had stepped into another world. The atmosphere changed subtly.

He couldn’t accurately describe it, but he instinctively knew he was no longer on Earth.

He looked around. They appeared to be in a tunnel carved into the mountain. Dim, soft purple moss clung to the walls, giving off a faint light.

"Mages!" Scarlet’s voice rang out. The two mages, along with Old Man Khrome, activated skills that illuminated their path.

Now that it was brighter, they could make out bones and broken, rusty weapons.

There were swords, daggers, glaives, and shields—and even some slim stingers and antennae that didn’t look like weapons at all.

"It seems this place had visitors before us," Gabriel noted as he advanced forward cautiously.

He didn’t dare underestimate a thousand-year-old ruin; there could be booby traps and other deadly mechanisms inside.

The group seemed to share this sentiment, as no one made any effort to pick up the weapons lying around.

"Or... they could have died during the time of construction. According to available information, this mountain only became visible some weeks ago," Sophie frowned.

"I suspect a few of them managed to escape and activated the invisible protective barrier to keep it hidden," Scarlet said calmly.

Gabriel paused for a moment, then nodded. "Not just to protect the ruins from outsiders—but maybe to keep something from getting out."

A heavy silence fell across the group as they grew even more nervous.

If what Gabriel said was true, then they really needed to be careful.

King Alveron had reached Level 399 when he was alive.

Whatever these adventurers saw that made them seal this place... it certainly wasn’t ordinary.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.