The earth folded in on itself, sending countless tonnes of crushing rock and gemstones down towards Lan.
George had been blown back by the impact of his own shout, buried beneath a different pile of rock.
The golden glow from the moss disappeared as the cavern lost its ceiling, and darkness overwhelmed Lan as he was smothered beneath the ground.
Alert Killed lvl:24 Ant Queen – Experience gained (Bonus due to Level difference)
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Alert: Level up! [7->8]
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Alert: Level up! [8->9]
Alert: Dungeon completed.
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Reward: Title – Epiphany (Temporary)
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Description: Genius is not born but made.
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Effect: The chance of experiencing an epiphany increases drastically.
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Clause 1: Title becomes permanent when only one pathfinder remains to carry it. (1 of 5)
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Clause 2: Loss of title on death.
As Lan was being buried alive, he couldn't help grinning. He had levelled up twice and was probably close to level 10, judging from just how strong the ant queen was and how much exp he should have gotten from her.
Without too much thought, he stuck his now 20 free points into dexterity and vitality at a ratio of 1:1
He felt his bruised wrist and broken fist healing exponentially faster as his vitality increased. His head cleared, and the fog of pain lifted.
For now, he was alive, he had been beside the wall when the cavern collapsed, and the debris was big enough that it had formed a barrier above his head. One huge boulder of gold was wedged between the floor and the wall, protecting him from most of the falling debris.
But that was temporary. He needed a way out and fast. The shattered room was creaking and groaning as rocks ground against each other, shifting as they slowly collapsed in on themselves.
'I need to make it to the exit,' Lan grabbed the golden scythe and began to crawl. He was once again grateful for his slender frame as he slipped between tiny gaps in fallen boulders and the jagged edges of shattered crystals.
If it were David in his shoes, he wouldn't have been able to go anywhere.
'I wonder if David survived?' Lan was about to shout and call out to the big man but thought better of it. One big noise could cause the tense equilibrium in the room to crumble.
'The title says 1 of 5, so everyone else must still be alive one way or another. And that bastard Archie! Shit, I need to get out of here as quick as possible to stop him from getting to the third step. If he gets there before me, I'll have no leverage on him anymore,' This realisation spurred Lan on as he scraped his belly against sharp rocks jutting out from the cracked floor.
With his jaw set tight and his hands bloody and raw, he finally managed to claw his way out of the collapsed room, finding a trail of blood leading down the corridor.
'It's fresh,' Lan recognised. 'It can't be more than a few minutes old. Maybe I can still catch him,'
When the cavern had collapsed, Archie had been nearest the exit, and Lan was confident Archie was the only person who could have gotten out of there before he did.
His knees were scraped, bleeding as he scrambled to his feet. The crawling had only made his hand throb with more intense pain, and his legs felt like jelly. But whoever had gotten out of here before him was bleeding quite badly. And Lan would catch the bastard. He just had to.
Gritting his teeth against the pain, he followed the trail of blood down the splendorous tunnel and out into the royal guards' chambers.
He didn't pause as he half staggered, half ran through the chamber, stumbling his way out through the winding tunnel that led out of the hive.
Each step was excruciating but also rewarding. The blood was getting fresher.
He could feel it in his bones. Archie was getting closer; the gap was closing.
The oppressing tunnel ended, and he was once again at the peak of the sprawling hive. Now that cavern was empty, and the ants all dead, it felt apocalyptic. It was similar to walking city streets in the dead of night. There should be people there, and the fact that there weren't was unsettling. Wrong even.
He scanned down the side of the hive, following the faint bloody trail to the foot of the hill. There it suddenly turned to the right and disappeared down one of the indistinguishable tunnels.
Lan grunted, picking up the pace as he ran down the side of the hive and into the tunnel. For whatever reason, this tunnel had no moss in it. It was entirely dark. Only the faint golden glow from the cavern behind offered a feeble light source.
Because of this, Lan was forced to slow down in case he tripped on a hidden rock or worse. Who knew what lay in the darkness? At best, there could be monsters like the crypt keeper down here. At worst, Archie would kill him, and he would die hearing the smug bastard laughing.
For what felt like an eternity, he stumbled through the dark, catching his clumsy feet on hidden rocks and banging his elbows on the increasingly narrow tunnel walls.
After a while, he lost all sense of direction and just kept travelling forward, wherever that was. But there was one thing he sensed clearly. The tunnel was going up. Not steeply, but it was rising.
Suddenly, in the stillness, Lan heard two faint noises. The first and loudest was shuffling footsteps. They were irregular and hurried as feet dragged across the pitch-black tunnel floor. The second sound was the rush of running water.
The further he travelled, the louder water grew. Blossoming from a quiet trickle into a roar that drowned out the footsteps.
'I'm so close!' Lan dug deep and pressed forward, feeling the tunnel walls narrow as he did so.
As the water grew louder, he felt a faint cooling mist blow against his face. And then, just up ahead, he saw light.
The water was glowing, or rather the things in the water were glowing. Countless luminous jellyfish glided through the rushing water, illuminating a faint stretch of the tunnel.
Just up ahead, a hunched silhouette paused at the lip of the rushing water.
"Archie!" Lan shouted.
The figure's head whipped around. Archie's face was bruised, with a deep gash running from his forehead to the bottom of his chin. One of his feet was mangled beyond repair, blood dripping from it onto the floor.
Without responding, Archie thrust his hand into his pocket, grabbing something small and stuffing it into his mouth. Then he turned around and threw himself into the water, getting whisked away by the violent current.
"Fucks sake!" Lan cursed, stumbling to the edge of the underground river.
The roaring waters seemed to rush upwards, although he had no idea where it led. But he wasn't about to let Archie get away after all this. He wanted those four dungeons and needed that asshole's plan to top the tutorial.
Staring down into the glowing waters, Lan realised something. He reached into the pocket of his robe and grabbed a fruit. It was the same fruit Archie had said would let him breathe underwater. The same fruit Archie had grabbed from the treasury.
'Was he planning this all along?'
Lan popped it into his mouth and swallowed. And then, without another pause or time to talk himself out of it. He jumped.
Swallowed whole by the current.
***
The day previously: Rachel
Rachel arrived at their meeting point feeling anxious. Although that was nothing strange. She always felt anxious, nervous, confused, or scared… Or maybe even a wonderful concoction of them all at once.
She was standing beside the western edge of the barrier, or what was left of the barrier anyway. The battle against the beast wave had been so drawn out, and lasted so long, that almost nothing remained of the barricade.
A few snapped sticks and pieces of splintered wood were all that remained.
She shifted on her feet uncomfortably. For her, the beast wave had gone incredibly well, all things considered. Since she hadn't bothered striking, there were plenty of beasts to kill and even more experience to be had. Honestly, she wouldn't be surprised if she ended up relatively high on the point leader board.
Plenty of pathfinders had given her dirty looks for fighting back, but they always did that. And she was used to those looks. She wasn't about to let someone else's opinion stop her from surviving.
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After waiting for about five minutes, Morgan arrived. They wore a robe that didn't fit quite right and seemed even more diminutive than when Rachel had last seen them.
"Hi," Morgan raised a pale hand in greeting.
Hi, Rachel replied. She had been getting better at communicating telepathically recently. Now it wouldn't sound like she was screaming directly into their mind.
"Were you waiting long?" Morgan asked, walking past Rachel and beyond the ruined barricade.
Rachel couldn't respond since Morgan had to be looking into her eyes for the telepathy to work.
Eventually, Morgan turned around, and she explained how her talent worked.
"Ah, I see," Morgan nodded slowly, "Penalties are a bitch,"
Rachel nodded in agreement. Amen.
Morgan gestured for her to follow, and so she did. Out past the barricade and around the perimeter of the city. "I'm sure you've been wondering what this meeting is all about,"
Yes, I… I'm not exactly sure why you needed me, of all people.
"Well, first of all, Lan trusts you and Lan doesn't trust many people, so you must be alright. Second of all, I need someone to help me with a 'heist' of sorts,"
Heist…
"To make a long story short, I have been working as a scout for a big party over the last few days. Recently I overheard our party leader talking with her closest confident about a hidden dungeon that they would be raiding tonight,"
Rachel's eyes widened as she leaned closer to Morgan, hanging on to their every word.
"I'm sure you know just how valuable an opportunity this hidden dungeon is, so I won't explain it to you. But from what I've been able to gather, it is a two-person dungeon. That is why the party leader only told her right-hand man,"
Do you mean for you and me to challenge the dungeon?
"I do indeed. Sure, I will probably get kicked out of the group, but who cares. There will always be another group, and if this dungeon gets me a decent title, I can aim even higher next time,"
Rachel took a deep breath, processing everything as she reappraised Morgan. At first, they seemed, for lack of a better word, meek. And even though she had just witnessed their ambition first-hand, she couldn't really change that image of them in her head. The two sides of Morgan just weren't clicking together.
Where is the dungeon?
Morgan scratched their shaved head awkwardly, "That… I don't exactly know. All I know is that they are going there tonight. And since it's at night-time, they must be passing along the road."
True, nobody would be crazy enough to walk through the forest when all the night drones are out.
"Exactly, so we will stake out their house and follow them to the pot of gold. Easy as that,"
Rachel felt her heartbeat accelerate as the thought of going to an actual dungeon became possible. She had never in a million years dreamt something like this would happen. But here she was, sneaking along the city's edge towards a brighter future.
Morgan led her through a gap in the barricade and between partially destroyed houses on the city's outskirts. They finally arrived at the inner city, where a modestly large house stood on a street corner.
Morgan dragged Rachel into a nearby alleyway, and they lay there, waiting for their targets to leave.
The streets of the town were quiet during the night. Most people were either sleeping or trying their luck at the sheer steps. There hadn't been any massacres there yet, but soon… The riots would start.
As the pressure mounted on those who had yet to climb even the first step, they would be increasingly desperate. In class, Rachel learned that this desperation was the most common cause of an entire tutorial failing.
If too many pathfinders gave up on defending the town against beast waves and focused only on the sheer steps, then there was cause for alarm.
Even today, some houses on the city's outskirts were severely damaged thanks to beasts that snuck through the ruined barricade. If not for the Prince taking control… Rachel shuddered to think what would have happened.
She didn't mind the quiet streets at night, though. It was peaceful, comforting even. The knowledge that no one could see her face or how much of a freak she was, was freeing.
"So, how did you meet Lan?" Morgan gossiped.
Rachel shrugged. He just came up to me and started chatting, I guess.
"Really?" Morgan raised their pale eyebrows, "That doesn't sound like Lan… I wonder if he's okay,"
Frowning, Rachel tried to think over Lan's emotions that night. She didn't like to read too deeply since it felt like an invasion of privacy, but that night, he had seemed a little… lost.
"What academy are you from, then?" Morgan asked.
The King's Thumb. Rachel replied begrudgingly. She wasn't a massive fan of her academy.
"Oh sweet, so you're a God-hand academy as well. I mean, I know most academies are, except for the really elite ones, but it's still cool,"
What about you?
"Oh me? I went to the crimson knuckle. Not the best place, as I'm sure you've heard. They are very harsh when it comes to… Human life,"
Rachel shuddered; she had heard bad things about that school. Although hers wasn't much better. It was just bad in a different way. The bullying in her school had been so severe she was forced to take private classes. But in the end, that only left her isolated and with a stutter.
Do you ever wish you could have just been a normal person without any powers or anything? Rachel asked. It had been a thought on her mind for a while now.
"No," Morgan replied without a hint of doubt, their gaze distant.
The door to the house across the street opened just before Rachel could respond. Out walked two figures, both of whom Lan would recognise if he were here.
One was a tall girl with black hair tied into a ponytail. Sarah. The other was the huge, brooding man that Lan had bumped into at the food stall the other morning. Luke.
"Let's go," Morgan whispered, ushering Rachel forward. "Oh, and if you need to talk to me, just tap my shoulder, and I'll turn around, okay?"
Rachel nodded, following after Morgan.
As they snuck through the quiet night streets after the pair, Rachel felt like she was alone. It was almost like Morgan wasn't even there. Their presence was so weak and unnoticeable that she overlooked it entirely. Even when Morgan was right in front of her, and she knew they were there, she almost forgot about them.
They followed Luke and Sarah out of the city and along the glowing path headed towards the sheer steps.
Rachel tapped Morgan on the shoulder. What if they are just going to the steps?
"They won't," Morgan replied with unerring confidence.
It was slow going, as Sarah kept checking behind her every few hundred metres to ensure they weren't being followed. Luckily, they were holding a large enough distance between each other that she hadn't noticed them yet.
"Would she keep checking behind her if she was just going to the sheer steps?" Morgan whispered.
Rachel nodded; they had a point.
Luke and Sarah walked along the path, and about halfway to the sheer steps, they stepped off into a gap in the shrubbery.
Morgan sped up, running the rest of the distance to where the pair had disappeared. Poking around in the undergrowth, Morgan found footsteps leading off into the forest.
Feeling apprehensive, Rachel gritted her teeth and followed Morgan through the trees. In the distance, they could hear a faint chirping, but it wasn't close enough yet to be of any concern.
Branches and vines tugged at her robe as she tiptoed through the forest, listening out for any signs of the other pair.
They couldn't be going too far into the forest. Otherwise, the bugs would get them. So they must be nearby.
Morgan took the lead, crouching low to the ground and following the footsteps through the forest like an expert hunter. They led Rachel down into a short ditch and then along the bottom towards a distant tree on the side of a hill.
Beneath the tree, Luke and Sarah stood in solemn silence.
Morgan froze, and Rachel followed suit. They both stood quietly in the ditch, listening intently for whatever conversation the pair were having.
"Which branch is it?" Sarah whispered, her voice carrying across the still night air.
"Didn't you say it was one of the bottom ones?" Luke asked, bending down and examining the thicker limbs at the bottom of the tree.
Morgan turned to look at Rachel, "They've found it,"
Should we go now? Rachel asked nervously.
Turning back to look at the pair pulling on the tree's lower branches, Morgan nodded. "I'll take the guy; you take the girl. How does that sound?"
"Hey, what was that?" Sarah whispered, turning to look in Morgan's direction.
Morgan stood up slowly, shaking as they walked towards the pair beneath the tree.
"Oh, it's only you, Morgan," Sarah sighed in relief, the tension rushing out of her.
Still in the ditch, Rachel was stunned. Why were they so calm? Morgan had followed them into the forest in the middle of the night, and they didn't exactly sound worried.
"I got lost," Morgan whispered, their whole body shaking like a leaf.
No way they'll buy that. Rachel couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Sarah laughed, her guard completely dropping as Morgan walked past her towards Luke.
"Now, Rachel," Morgan stuttered in that same frightened tone.
"Rachel? Who's Rachel?" Sarah asked, her expression twisted into confusion that didn't change when Morgan produced a knife from the folds of their robe and drew it across Luke's throat.
"Morgan! Why did you do that?" Sarah shouted, like a confused mother scolding her child.
Luke's body dropped limply to the ground in a heap, disappearing in motes of red light that were whisked away by unseen winds.
Rachel burst from the ditch, rushing towards Sarah.
"Hey, you! What are you doing here!?" Sarah shouted even louder than when Morgan had killed her companion.
'What the hell is wrong with this woman?' Rachel wondered as she ran into range.
She was holding her longsword in both hands and staring intently at Sarah. Their eyes met in the forest's gloom; by then, it was all over.
Rachel sent what she liked to call an 'overload' directly into Sarah's brain. It was a culmination of thousands of thoughts, feelings, and emotions that completely overwhelmed the target's brain for a brief moment.
From her testing with Lan, she had learned that the higher her target's mind stat, the less effective this psychic attack was.
Clearly, Sarah's mind stat was not particularly high. She doubled over, throwing up. And wasn't even able to stand upright before Rachel's sword was buried in her neck.
Morgan whistled appreciatively, walking up towards the tree and fiddling with the branches. "You're better than I thought,"
Thank you, Rachel fidgeted awkwardly, allowing herself to smile a little.
After fiddling with the branches for a couple minutes, Morgan finally found the one they had been looking for. It was identical to all the others. Only this one could be twisted.
It turned with a satisfying click, and a tunnel suddenly formed in the ground beside the tree. Steep earthen steps descended into unknown depths.
Rachel fished about in the dead pair's belongings, finding a red flare. She struck it against the tree's bark, producing an orange glow as the flare spluttered into life.
Morgan looked down the endless stairs and back at Rachel, "Shall we?"
Rachel nodded nervously. We've come this far.
"True, let's get going then," Morgan took their first step down the stairs and quickly disappeared into the darkness below.
Following quickly behind, Rachel couldn't help feeling excited as she descended the steps. The steps ended almost as soon as they had begun, stopping surprisingly shallowly and turning into a tunnel that sloped gently upwards.
For almost an hour, Morgan and Rachel travelled through the tunnel. It was cold and damp, the earth pressing down around them on all sides.
By the time they eventually reached the surface, Rachel was so grateful she didn't even bother to check her surroundings. Gulping in lungfuls of fresh air.
She looked up at the bare night sky, where a brilliant moon sparkled… "M-Moon?" She stuttered, rubbing her eyes in disbelief.
"Moon?" Morgan turned to where she was looking and froze. "You don't think?"
Rachel felt a sinking feeling in her gut. She really didn't want the upgraded difficulty tutorial. That only benefited the truly elite.
Beside the new moon, two huge shadows clashed against each other, one sending the other crashing into the forest floor.
"Oh no," Was all Morgan could think to say.
Alert: Moon Strider awakened.
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The conditions to pass the tutorial have been changed accordingly.
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Time limit: 30 days -> 15 days
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Difficulty increased
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Rewards doubled
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See the leaderboard for more details...
"Shit!" Morgan cursed, kicking the ground, gouging a furrow in the grass.
Rachel shook her head and sighed. This tutorial had just gotten a lot harder, which only made the dungeon they were standing outside all the more precious.
Come on, we should hurry and try to complete this while we still have time. Rachel encouraged Morgan, as much for herself as it was for them.
Morgan nodded, shaking their head angrily. "When I get my hands on whichever asshole did this…."
Rachel ignored the empty threat and looked around. The whole tutorial seemed to be below them. They were standing on the cusp of what looked like a Colosseum. It was hollowed out from the peak of a hill too steep to climb.
In the centre, an arena stained with dried blood waited for them.
They had arrived on the cusp of the hill beside the entrance, and after Morgan had finished cursing Archie (Although he didn't know it was Archie at the time), they entered the arena.
It was so spacious it was overwhelming. And since they had no idea what to do or where to go. Eventually, they decided to make their way to the centre of the arena.
"I don't like the look of this," Morgan muttered.
Rachel nodded, following timidly behind them towards the centre, where a floating notification hovered in the brand-new moonlight.
Alert: Dungeon Trial - Freedom fighter
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Challenge - Clear as many waves as you are able
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Time limit - 5 days
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Reward - Granted upon the number of waves cleared
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Participants (0/2)
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Touch the screen to enter.
After a final nod of agreement, Morgan and Rachel reached out simultaneously, touching the glowing box and flowing into it like streams of data.
When they woke up again, they were inside an ancient gladiatorial arena.
The crowd roared in bloodthirsty anticipation, and a vast gate was slowly opening on the opposite side of the arena.
From within, snarls and strangled screeches could be heard, silencing even the most passionate of the crowd.
With bated breath, Rachel watched as the first of many monsters emerged from that gate.