“Hey Zach, are you sure this is the way out?” I ask my oldest friend, and amateur spelunking partner.
“Definitely man, look you can see my marker on the wall, sometimes you just gotta go down to get back up!” he says while looking at the drop in front of him. And what a drop it was, even with my high-powered flashlight, the bottom of the 3-meter-wide hole was invisible.
“I’m 98% sure we didn’t climb up a wall this steep, we shouldn’t go any deeper Zach, we’ve already had to spend one night in here because you suck at putting up markers. Hell, that on the wall is probably someone else’s.”
It was almost certainly not one we had placed, considering we had run out of them hours ago, and decided to push on a little longer. It was a mistake I didn’t plan on repeating again. We’re just lucky the guide we read recommended we bring food. WE only had enough protein bars to last a couple of days though.
“Come on man, it has to be. No one has come in here in at least a hundred years!”
“Yes, because no cave in the history of Earth has more than one entrance.”
“Huh, I didn’t actually think of that… DAMN! This is definitely not the way out! We’re SO lost man, we’re going to starve to death in some forgotten cave!”
And my best friend instantly started panicking immediately. It was somewhat understandable as the entrance we used was a hole in the ground on his Great-great-grandfather’s land, one which was forbidden to everyone for the old man’s entire life.
After he passed away a few years ago Zach’s Dad ended up inheriting the land, and thus this cave. Zach managed to convince his dad to let us explore it as long as we did our research, stayed safe, and Zach managed to get accepted to a collage and graduate.
“Calm down man, we aren’t going to die, for all we know this cold lead to another exit, we can get down to the bottom and then have a very quick look around. If it seems like we’ll just get more lost, we climb back up and keep looking for our way back.”
I did often have to be Zach’s voice of reason. Most would think the two of us wouldn’t get along, we were almost complete opposites after all. In high school he was a jock type that played every sport he could and attended every event that was held. The guy was one of the most popular kids in school, while I only really hung out with him.
I went to the gym regularly and worked my ass of getting good grades so I could get into a good school. Unlike my friend, I didn’t have parents who could pay for whatever collage would even accept me. I didn’t have parents at all. After my parents died when I was 13 years old, I threw myself into school doing my best to make them proud, cutting off most of my social life in the process.
“Yeah! … yeah, that sounds like a plan Chris. Sorry I freaked for a second there, ill set up a rope.”
“All good man, we gotta sta----”
The world shook… Hard.
Surprisingly there was no collapse. It was strange, as if the rock wasn’t affected by the quake, just the people. The people like Zach and Chris. One of which happened to be walking towards a hole in a cave. Of course, there was only one way that could end. Both of the 18 year old’s lost their footing, and fell. Chris landed on his ass and cursed a little. Zach Screamed.
“AHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh--”
*Ding
World J248-231 - designation EARTH - of galactic sector LL762-938 has reached sufficient energy for integration
World is being fused with the 7,298 other worlds sharing the designation EARTH
Due to hazardous conditions, all inhabitants that would have died due to the 17.68 seconds of fusion will be revived and removed from any lethal areas
Chris stared at the blue box in front of him. Seconds ticked by as his mind tried to decide if he had died or was dreaming. It was definitely one of the two. Waving his had through the box did nothing, it didn’t even block his vision of it. Definitely a dream.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Thump!
Chris heard his best friend hit the ground after falling for several seconds, and snapped out of his thoughts, and he instinctually willed the box away. ZACH! Shit there’s no way in hell he survived that.
“ZACH! Are you OK! Can you hear me!?”
Chris didn’t panic often, but most would agree this situation deemed it acceptable. He quickly grabbed the rope Zach had dropped, tied it around a nearby stalagmite, and started repelling down the hole. It was far deeper than Chris had thought possible, and with the Earth still shaking every few seconds, it was rather distressing.
A couple seconds after he started going down another of those strange blue boxes showed up in his eyes.
*DING
Fusion complete.
Revival commencing.
Revival of 12,326,785,214 entities confirmed
WELCOME INHABITANTS OF WORLD S-3 TO THE SYSTEM
“AHHHHHHhhhhh …. What the FUCK! I died, I had to have. Either that or I fell onto another planet.”
“ZACH! You good down there?” Chris yelled still in half a state of confusion.
“CHRIS! Did you die too? Fuck! Well at least we both get to be video game bad-asses it seems.”
“I didn’t die you idiot. Think system apocalypse not reincarnation or portal fantasy.”
While Chris read much more than Zach, both of them had enjoyed a LitRPG phase a few years ago.
“Ahh, and it seems our world combined with a few others, that’s pretty cool I guess, wonder if we have hot elf chicks now?” Zach always had his priorities straight after all.
During this conversation, Chris finally made it to the bottom of the hole and stilled. Zach was sitting on the ground still. Staring at the space in front of him. Not paying attention to the human sized, dark, hungry lizard right behind him. The thing had incredibly sharp looking teeth, which were currently preparing to bite Zach in half.
“MOVE!” Chris yelled
Zach startled, and jumped to his feet, only for the lizard to close its jaw on Zach’s legs. Blood spurted and both young men screamed, one now with one less leg. Chris reacted faster than any untrained person had any right to and charged the oversized lizard with his tactical knife he always had on him. The thing was to dumb to even notice the charging man, instead looking at its prey that had fallen into pieces and was now crawling away from it. Chris had landed only a few feet away from his friend, so the distracted creature was stabbed, right in the eye, before it could go for a second bite.
Chris assumed that would be it, and he could try and save his friend. Chris was wrong. The monster simply shook its head back and forth, and Chris went flying into the cave wall, somehow, he still held the knife, but the lizard just bit at his only friend again. Zach, still yelling and panicking, thrust out his arm, trying to push the thing away. He lost his dominant arm. Halfway between his shoulder and elbow blood spurted, and Zach screamed even louder.
Chris started to panic. Ignoring his own pain from his landing, he rushed the now one-eyed lizard again. The thing was still hyper focused on the now dying Zach, and allowed Chris to easily stab the other eye, however Chris had learned from the last time, as he quickly removed the knife and jumped back as the lizard screeched. The dumb reptile tried to take a bite of the thing that kept hurting it but came up short as Chris had jumped away from its head, along its body.
Chris stabbed his knife into the thigs side and was surprised by how easily it pierced the scales. He drew it along the side of the monster, leaving a large gash, before something slammed into his side, sending him stumbling several steps back, and likely breaking a few ribs. Chris thought that would be enough for it to focus on him, however it decided to eat first.
What Chris didn’t know was that this monster had an ability that allowed it to heal from eating. Thus, the lizard took its third bite at Zach. This time however Zach had had a moment to think. While both men were still level 0 classless weaklings, the system did make a few changes to everyone who was integrated. One of which was making it easier to not go into shock and react in battle. So that’s what Zach did.
Within a puddle of his own blood, his life quickly leaving him, he stuck out his other arm, but this time he was holding his own knife. As he allowed the lizard to eat his only remaining arm, he smiled as the 10” blade slid through the top of the monster’s mouth, into its brain.
*DING
Party Member Zacharias Malachi Richman - Human (0) has fallen
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