Whump!

Stretch!

“Damn! He was right about the spider webs able to keep me alive, but what the f*ck? I was falling for a full 2 minutes. Those tarantulas sure did spend a helluva long time digging this. Eh, it's really good that I can see in the dark or else I’d be f*cked down here, hehehehe! Although,” Terry looked at the webbing underneath him. “I guess I gotta light these webs and continue. I sure as hell hope that I actually survive this because while I do hate that damn huge tarantula, I not only gave my word but used a contract skill. Sigh, I wonder how long before I can actually see the damn sun again. I know that since I’m a vampire or something that I can’t sleep, or need to for that matter. But I really want to take a damn break and eat something for a change. Well, since the mine tunnels’ abandoned, I guess it’ll be easy enough to get through. Well, I’ll have to anyway considering how I’ll need blood after a while too. Now then, time to see what my fate shall be. Will the coin land on heads or tails?

Terry raised his sword and pierced into the soft, sticky webbing and watched it ignite like gasoline. Terry moved away from the center where the flame spread outward from and when the opening in the web was large enough, he jumped through.

[activating Undetectable Body]

This time, the fall was only around 20 seconds before Terry crashed to the ground. His legs shook from the impact but he recovered quickly and stood up straight soon afterward.

“Oh, nice, I activated my skill, so where's the barrier? Wait, hell yeah! I got out of there! I’m a free man!” Terry yelled as his voice echoed through the tunnel. Terry looked around to see his surroundings and out of the corner of his eye saw something shiny.

“Hmm,” Terry said, grabbing the shiny rock. He couldn’t tell what color it was with his vision but could notice a peculiar shine in it. Terry used his sword like a chisel and broke the rocks around it and pulled out the massive a small, gleaming white gem the size of Terry’s fist.

“If I have this, which looks to be worth money, I can probably get some money and pay for stuff when I get out of here,” Terry said, holding tightly to the stone in his right hand while he held the sword in his left.

[indum jewel consumed, demonic control increased]

Within a second, the jewel lost its luster and became like an ordinary rock.

Huh, Terry thought. I don’t know what just happened but I guess it must be worthless now considering what the message said. Hmm, I guess I should try to find more while I look for an exit. The best chance to find the exit would be to find a minecart track, Terry thought as he began to search. Terry looked to his left to find a big tunnel compared to the other little holes.

Damn, the people who dug these tunnels did one helluva job! I mean, I wonder how long such a hole took to dig. Well, since this tunnel is nice and big, I should have no trouble getting out of here by following it.

[activating Spur]

Terry continued down the massive tunnel in the complete darkness of the cave.

I guess I know why this mine was abandoned, while there was like one gem or jewel, there’s no more. Well, I didn’t come here to mine anyway. Terry continued for an hour or so before…

“Huh, where the hell are the damn minecart tracks?!” Terry yelled as he reached 3 more tunnels. “Don’t tell me, this world is too primitive for even those?! What if they don’t even have guns at all?”

Terry continued through the tunnels as he looked for another tunnel or the way out.

“Man, I’ve been here for three days! Where the hell is the exit? Or at least some blood? This is so boring!” Terry yelled with rage. He had been searching for a very long time which he could only equate to 3 days with how he couldn’t know precisely. There was no response other than the rumbling from far away.

“Damn, wait, there's sound? I should go check that out immediately!” Terry yelled as he began running through the tunnel on his far right toward the sound of some sort of rushing water or digging.

After using spur for around a minute, Terry came across a dead end that was moving…

Terry gripped his stolen sword firmly and stared at the ‘moving thing’ as there was no other name to call it.

[activating appraisal]

[(Rabid) Giga worm=Ultimate]

Terry stood silently. I can’t fight this, Terry thought slowly. There's no shame in backing down. Just like a bomb, Terry told himself. Just kill it when you are ready for it.

Terry waited for 5 more seconds before the entire worm disappeared into the distance at massive speed and proceeded to view the tunnel and gasped. He had been going through the worm’s tunnels instead of the normal path. No wonder the mine had been shut down. From what Terry could tell, he was much stronger than a ‘normal’ person. While he wasn’t as insanely powerful as the tarantula, he was quite strong in his own right. So no wonder there was ore of some kind inside those tunnels. Well, I’m not going to waste my time trying to mine for minerals no matter how precious when I don’t even know how to escape these damn tunnels with my life. Especially since I’m f*cked if that thing catches wind of me. I probably saw only 10% of that thing’s whole body which was completely vulnerable. That’s what makes that creature so terrifying. It’s skin is tough but exposed nonetheless, and the dirt in this mine is very sturdy, so with that speed, it must have an invincible attack or something to make it so threatening with appraisal, Terry thought. Well, standing won’t do much, I gotta get the hell outta here. My best bet is searching until I find smaller tunnels which were actually dug by real miners and following those out. I sure as hell hope to not die, Terry thought as he continued through the tunnels sometimes hearing rumbling which would scare him, but his spur kept him fast enough to avoid any and all out of the few times that the giga worm came near Terry. Naturally, Terry used his skill Mask existence, in order to further improve his chances of survival. Eventually, after 3 minutes of using Spur and searching several tunnels and abandoning all those that led further down into the Earth, when Terry had become almost exhausted from the use of his two major skills for so long, he finally found a tunnel about a fifth of the size of the Giga Worm tunnel. There was a tunnel on the right and one on the left, probably split when the Giga worm tunneled straight between. Terry looked into the tunnels and frowned,

“These n*ggas still don’t have minecarts nor the tracks. Although I don’t really have a use for one since I can just keep zipping around fast anyway.”

Terry zipped through the tunnel on his right because he was right handed and there was no other simple way to choose.

30 minutes...

50 minutes...

75 minutes…

“Haah,” Terry sighed quietly as he reached a fork in the path. He had become tired after having used his skill for so long and had taken quite a while to simply get used to moving at such speed without a car. One path in the tunnel led seemingly deeper while another led seemingly higher and the final also led down but slightly less. Naturally, Terry walked through the path on his far left which led up and up was Terry’s only known way to escape the damned cave with a monster that could slaughter him without even knowing.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

[activating Spur]

Terry sped himself up as he was filled with hope of finally reaching the surface while also a slight annoyance that he had to see the sun. After 1 minute or so Terry frowned.

“F*ck,” Terry said angrily as he reached a dead end. He had gotten quite high up according to himself, but was still far from an exit.

“If only I had some dynamite I could leave here within seconds. But I don’t dare to dig or mine my way out for fear of that damn worm coming and devouring me whole. Terry was officially lost but couldn’t do anything about it other than wander mindlessly. Terry traveled back through his tunnel to the fork in the path and instead chose the tunnel on the far right to explore. Rushing forward without a care for anything else other than escape, Terry came across something strange, 2 skeletons sat at another dead end with seemingly words carved next to them in the rock by using some sharp knife or some such. Instead of turning around angrily, Terry stared intrigued by the men or women as he couldn’t tell since they were skeletons. The skeletons sat wearing rounded metal hats similar to normal miners and may have worn clothing had it not been eaten away by bugs or rotten away.

[activating Vampiric intelligence]

Hmm, let’s see here, “we’re never going to leave but please help us get our revenge. We can’t trust whoever you are, but as soon to be dead men, we can’t do much about that. We have no way out of here. The Temple has sealed us inside here once we have mined almost everything here and figured out what they’re plan was for these materials known as indum jewels. It is able to highly concentrate demonic energy and then use that energy as the user sees fit. Meaning, this material can be used immediately in order to fight demons by killing them and absorbing their souls. Such things can then be used to control monsters of any kind. The higher the level and the skill, the better the control over the monster. The temple dared to use our hard work and even sent a giga worm to kill us. Well, if you can, please destroy the Temple. There may not be much, but underneath is some rock which underneath holds some indum jewels which can possibly be used to control the worm and escape. Although, with no demonic energy and the fact that we are cowards, we can’t possibly fight that creature or ever hope to control it. But, neither can you unless you are a demon or priest. But I nonetheless hope something will be done and our revenge will be achieved. Especially since those bastards have been framing monsters and demons for killing they have orchestrated the whole time.

Damn, Terry thought. This guy wrote too much. Even if I can read it which was also hard, this guy shoulda just said like, ‘sup n*gga, I got some coke underground here and I want you to attack the Temple’ but whatever, if this guy’s telling the truth, I can get outta here easily. I thought I was unlucky for being in here for around a full hour or so even with my spur and natural speed but I guess this is actually better. Cuz now I can get out of here immediately and have a super strong ally or some such. Now then, to get the good stuff, Terry thought as he pushed the skeletons aside and used his sword to dig out the rocks directly under the skeletons which had been sealed strongly due to time but not too difficult to remove regardless and eventually Terry hit one of the indum jewels.

“Alright!” Terry exclaimed. Terry dug out the remaining rocks and again saw the gleaming rocks which were known as indum jewels. They could have been another color since Terry could only see in black and white at the moment but that wasn’t what mattered. What mattered is if that message had the truth. Some parts were faded but Terry did his best to make sense of it and it sounded pretty normal. All that mattered was that the numerous gems that were hidden here could help Terry out quite a bit with escaping the damned cave and tunnels. There were around 40 to fifty of the indum jewels which were quite a lot for just 2 people but there was plenty of info Terry didn’t know and even more that he didn’t care to know. Especially since being stuck inside the cave was one of Terry’s few fears that he had never experienced before. While he just barely escaped death by tarantulas and then an insanely powerful barrier, and now this. Terry was in shock at so many encounters with death so close. But, Terry still had hope and that was what kept him going. Terry had finally moved all of the rocks blocking the indum jewels and took one in his hand.

[indum jewel consumed, demonic control increased]

Terry took another in his hand and set his stolen sword down.

[indum jewel consumed, demonic control increased]

[activating Overwhelming strength]

Terry began grabbing the jewels like a madman and began throwing the used ones behind him while also purposely nullifying his Mask Existence in order for his noise to travel further. The sound of the empty jewels shattering on contact with the hard ground of the tunnel echoed throughout the cave. There was no response for the first 30 seconds but then sounds began to follow in response.

Ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,

chchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchch!!!!

“Alright, I sure as hell hope that those guys were right about what they were saying about using demonic energy to control monsters. Considering how they had so many jewels, I hope that was a good thing and that the jewels were strong and not that those jewels were weak and they just had a bunch. My power seemed to increase quite a bit and while I can’t feel anything different, the messages that appear are never wrong, Terry thought as he threw and shattered the last empty jewel.

Terry watched as the entire tunnel in front of him was being devoured as a massive mouth or drill of some kind came charging at him.

“Damn, you’re one ugly n*gga aren’t you? Well then,” Terry readied himself and breathed in and out deeply in order to help ready him for his next encounter with death. “Now, begone thot!”

[activating Demon king aura]

Whoosh!

The speed of the Giga Worm began to slow dramatically before ultimately coming to a stop within 3 meters of Terry.

By this point, Terry’s face was filled with terror and while he didn’t produce a drop of sweat, he was almost as terrified as when he met the tarantula.

“Haah,” Terry sighed as a bit of his fear left him and he began to feel very tired but continued to stand.

[activating Appraisal]

[(resisting) Giga Worm]

“okay, now then, how do I command it? I shouldn’t test my luck and leave here quickly,” Terry stared at the squirming Giga Worm as if it was awaiting an order. But, Terry couldn’t really see an eye on the creature and while it had incredible hearing as he had assumed in order to sense surroundings, he wasn’t sure if it could understand english or whatever it was called in this world. Especially since there was nobody to ask. Terry decided that he should just hurry up and speak before he was possibly devoured by a hungry dog that wouldn’t hesitate at any time to kill its owner.

[activating Vampiric Intelligence]

“Well then, dig diagonally upward above me until a straight path out of this cave is created for me. Once that is done, stay out of my way,” Terry commanded threateningly as he carefully watched the creature in front of him which began to carry out the exact order it was given. While slow at first, probably since it was resisting, the Giga worm began to speed up and eventually the sound of it digging began to fade away.

“Damn, I must be underground quite a bit,” Terry said as he began to climb up the somewhat steep tunnel. He had become exhausted and was probably unable to activate his wings without passing out like before or possible worse. Terry was very good at determining his strengths and weaknesses through instinct and therefore decided that walking was the best option to escape the cave fast and safely. Terry slowly climbed his way out of the steep tunnel in order to avoid a possible fall and also hoped to recover his strength by not continuously overusing his skills just because he had done so so far. Terry already felt as though his legs were completely shredded due to having used Spur for so long and his chest ached immensely possibly due to having used his Demon king aura which always used a lot of energy especially if used in succession. Yet, this pain was different. Terry felt a bit less pain upon his entire body and more as if each time his slow vampire heart pumped blood, he was becoming consumed by rage. The same rage that had triggered the first use of the dangerous skill. Terry knew, while the skill was very powerful and useful, the side effects were too great. Similar to powerful steroids. Terry couldn’t use this skill again even if he was in intense danger because if he did, his very soul and mind could become consumed by nothing but rage.

[activating Mental control]

The rage began to calm down a bit inside Terry and he was able to breath easily again. Terry looked up through the tunnel and saw the blinding rays of the sun through his Vampire Sight. Terry nullified his Vampire Sight and felt some more ease in his body now that he had nullified all of his active skills. Terry began to look out the tunnel again and grinned wide. He hadn’t seen the sun in such a long time. Well, not directly anyway, but just the rays of natural light were such a sight for sore eyes. Terry had begun to feel like the few of his numbers who had been freed from solitary confinement and then cried at simply seeing the sky no matter the time of day.

Damn, I guess I’ll have to leave you for now, but we’ll meet again soon. After all, you need to grow on your own for a while as well. Just try not to get yourself killed.

After climbing for around an hour while taking a few breaks by sitting in the few other tunnels that intercepted the one Terry followed straight up, Terry finally made his way to the surface. The rays of sunlight streamed across Terry’s pale, cold, vampire skin.

[activating Light Resistance]

“Ah,” Terry said as his skin began to tingle in the sunlight. “Wait, where am I?” Terry said as he stared out across a peak as if he was on a canyon. Terry stepped onto the peak and stretched out his hands.

“Again, where the f*ck am I?”