Chapter 18

Entombed in Blood

Ethan fiddled with a strange-looking item, a palm-sized dagger with a needlepoint tip coated in faint, dark green, and a chiselled handle bound in leather. It was the reward for clearing the camp–past enough experience points to reach Level 2 and unlock Inventory–and though it was quite basic, it did surprise him somewhat. The general rule of thumb when it came to items from the so-called 'First Generation Tunnels' was that they were all virtually useless outside those tunnels themselves.

The reality was that the most common items were knives and swords and hatches and shields that had numerical values in line with kitchen knives and no special effects to speak of. There were exceptions, of course, especially with Trinkets, but for the most part–especially items dropped by ordinary monsters–the items were smelted for raw materials. The dagger he held, though, was an exception–an unexpected exception, of all things, at that.

[Tar-Tipped Waeul’s Dagger]

Level: 1

Rarity: Common

Damage: 2

+1 Strength

Special Effect: weapon has a chance to inflict the target with Tar Rot, lowering the target's movement speed by 8% every 3 seconds, stacking up to 10 times. Once 10 stacks are reached, Rot blooms, dealing 100% of movement speed lost to the target and every living thing within 6 feet of it. This special effect can only occur twice before the weapon is destroyed.

It was a quirky and strange and borderline unusable effect for basically everyone outside of him. There were few instances where lowering the monster's move speed would help, especially this early on, and even those few instances could easily do without the effect. However, there were precisely three specific scenarios that immediately popped into Ethan's mind that he could use the dagger for. He could still do all three without it, though not right now, and even still with some difficulties in the future.

The first was the so-called event ‘Hunt of the Minew’ that can be initiated inside any of the common Tunnels. So long as he could locate a single trace of a Minew, the event would trigger, and the goal was to hunt down–though not kill–a monster called Minew. It was a rabbit-squirrel hybrid with three tails and six ears and strikingly blue fur, and it was fast. In fact, even speed-specialising classes struggle to keep up with it step-for-step years into the development of the Awakened. Of course, those who hunted it never relied on outrunning it, but outwitting it–and so long as he managed to chip it with a dagger, the job would be done for him.

The second was the boss encounter in one of the Tunnels that would spawn just outside the city about a month into the future. The boss was a genuine nightmare to deal with and would hold the record for the longest a boss went on undefeated for a long time, capping at 6 years, three months, and eleven days. The day of its death became a legitimate worldwide holiday, as it wasn't a unique boss but one that would appear sporadically through the Tunnels.

The third scenario was a bit trickier and would likely fail even with the dagger–it was challenging a Runner to a race. However, as Runners were a part of non-conquering Tunnels, it would still be roughly a year before the first one appeared, so Ethan had a choice before him–save the second use of the dagger for the Runner, or delay finishing this Tunnel and look for traces of Minew.

One of the effect’s charges was definitely being used on the Tunnel boss as the reward for slaying it made even him salivate. Though six years in the future, the reward was quite tame, just a few months after the Descent? It would be beyond amazing and a must-have. The other effect charge, however, he was uncertain of.

Eventually, he tossed the dagger into his inventory, electing to leave the problem for future Ethan. For now, he decided to focus on the rest of the plan–they had around 3 days in total to spend in the Tunnel before it would become a dawn back on Earth. Time flow was funky across all Tunnels, and some had some insanely depressive rates–such as spending one whole decade in a Tunnel meant only a minute would have passed on Earth, but there were also stark opposites.

The so-called ‘Land of Elation’ was a Tunnel that would eventually open up in the middle of Tokyo. After several groups of Awakened entered and when none of them returned even months later, the Tunnel was banned completely and put on the ‘Red’ list. About fifteen years after the fact, the Awakened came out–beaten and tattered, but victorious. According to them, they’d been in the Tunnel only a week.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

That was why Ethan wouldn’t risk any Tunnels that he may stumble upon that were outside of the discovery. Though the risk was minor, it was still there–and he wasn’t willing to take it. For this Tunnel, however, the risk was minimal. It was one of the many, many, many nameless Tunnels that just led into a pocket dimension that seemingly had no rhyme or reason to it. Usually, there were anywhere between fifteen to fifty ordinary monsters and a boss monster.

This Tunnel in particular ended up being cleared about a year after the Descent by a group of semi-experienced Awakened. It took them about fifteen days (inside the Tunnel) and despite some minor injuries, they didn't suffer any casualties. The reward for defeating the boss was an ordinary sword that ended up being smelted, and, all-in-all, it was the most basic, boring Tunnelling that everyone loved. And it was perfect for him, too, as it was an easy source of early experience. He wanted to rush to Level 5 and unlock two more abilities in addition to the Monster Logbook feature and the Daily Quest feature, but he wasn’t certain whether there was actually enough experience inside the Tunnel, even if he licked it clean, to reach Level 5.

If he was alone, he probably could have done it, but with Tara tagging along, it was likely impossible. However, he still elected to bring her along–experience was relatively easy to acquire, especially early on, but these first, formative ventures for the newly Awakened were imperative. She'd fought a zowolf, but she also had to see how an experienced Awakened actually fought, and what her future in this world entailed.

“You ready?” he called out suddenly, prompting her to look at him.

“What? We’re moving already?” she asked.

“Lots to do. No need to waste time.”

“Alright.”

“Next fight, you’ll join me,” he said. Her eyes flickered for a moment, partly in fear but mostly in expectancy. “I won’t be as roughhouse, and will just slightly maim them and send them your way. Your job will be to finish them off.”

“... alright,” Tara nodded, her expression stiff and stern.

“Relax,” Ethan chuckled, resisting the urge to ruffle her hair. She wasn’t a child, and he shouldn’t treat her as one, no matter how young in his eyes she was. “Despite their appearance, they’re quite weak. Their defences are shit, and even if they manage to land a hit, it will deal some twenty damage at most. So, unlike the last time, without losing your mind and senses and the calling of order, relax. Let it come to you. And when they’re within your grasp, swing, claw, kick, hell, even bite for all I care. Kill them, one by one.”

“Yes, yes, let’s just go. I’m afraid you’ll spiral into another speech that I’ll have to pretend is deep.”

"Pfft, ha ha ha, alright," Ethan stood up through laughter, dusting off his behind and stretching lazily as his eyes latched onto the trails. First Generation Tunnels were all relatively small, most roughly a block or two wide, three at most, but as their biomes were often entangled inwardly, people still got lost in them. However, for a master tracker such as himself, that was impossible. Even if he never actually set foot in this place before, he already knew not only where they had to go, where the next set of enemies was, but even where the boss monster was–and what it was. In fact, he’d known all that before ever fighting the first camp. “Let’s go.”

The two departed in silence, wading through the darkness. Ethan led the way slowly and casually, matching Tara's pace, and she followed in his footsteps without ever missing a beat. Here and there, a sound of the wind whipping through the canopies of the trees would startle her and she would expect a fight, but nothing ever came of it. It was one of the few 'graces' of the entire thing, Ethan knew–there'd never be an ambush in a First Generation Tunnel, outside the last one. Monsters never stalked and preyed upon the Awakened, letting them slowly grow accustomed to the whole ordeal. It was a double-edged sword, however, as all future Tunnels did have ambushes, and those ambushes became the leading cause of the so-called 'First Awakened Extinction'. All was a lesson in life–some of them were painless, and some were deadly. Ethan's knowledge was entirely held up by the decades of suffering and hundreds of millions of dead, dying and crippled. He was their voice, and though he'd be unable to prevent all the tragedies from occurring–not yet, anyway–he'd do his damnedest to lessen them as much as he could.

That was, in part, why he never told Tara there’d be no ambushes, and even played along on occasion where he looked like he was listening for them. Eventually, she would catch on, but he’d never let her drown her alertness in lieu of arrogance. He’d watched many die and even more be humbled by the silent darkness and the creeping daggers that came flying from it, and he didn’t want to watch any more of them.

Some fifteen minutes later, they came upon a second camp–this time around, there were only three monsters huddled around a tiny kindling of a fire. Ethan, without saying a word, sauntered forward, drew attention to himself, and played around with the monsters for a bit before tossing them over to Tara, one by one. The young woman screamed, pushing adrenaline within her, and started stabbing and slashing with the dagger she'd picked up at the previous camp. Green blood sprayed in droves and soon coated her and soaked her from head to toe, but she didn't stop until the monsters were unrecognisable.

It would get better, Ethan knew. Right now, she needed a full force of adrenaline to virtually move her limbs and block out the instinct against her actions. Though she was killing monsters, she was still killing a living thing. It was akin to hunting down an animal, at least to the primal part of the brain. She did it, however, and remained there kneeling amidst their corpses, heaving absentmindedly, her eyes wide open, wet with blood. She was beginning to change, to morph, to shed the human parts of herself that needed to be shed in order to survive. It will be haunting–but Ethan had faith she’d walk on her own soon enough.

The three monsters that they killed were incidentally enough for both of them to Level Up. Aside from the basic increases in stats that came with every Level Up and that were dependent on the classes, the second feature after the Inventory was unlocked–Monster Log. It was a mandatory study book of any Awakened, and its entries could be sold to others–a market that was virtually priceless in the future… and one that he absolutely intended to dominate beyond domination. It would all be his, by will or by force.