Alone, it was a feeling that stayed with him ever since he saved his friends—the feeling nestled in his chest like the beginning of a cold. In the past few days of nonstop training and focusing on his energy flowing through his body correctly.

He's gotten stronger, strong enough to rush into a dungeon to save his friends. Saving them somehow changed something. He awoke to find Nhoka and the rest of the team standing by the lake, looking down at him.

"How are you guys feeling? Did you drink the healing potions?"

The whole group bowed deeply. Nhoka spoke.

"Thank you for what you did. We don't know how we can repay you."

Gin slowly stood and looked down at the group. He was taller than all except Cohan, and his cat ears twitched.

"We ain't free yet."

Gin expected her to laugh or smirk but never saw his eyes.

"You don't owe me anything. None of you do. Stop bowing. I think bowing is cool, but you're making it weird. Plus, we still have to get out of those tunnels."

"We ask that you watch over Jareth until we leave the dungeon because he's still."

"Yeah. What's mine is yours."

His stomach growled, and his arms felt like spaghetti. Nhoka finally gave him a second look.

"Was your appearance in the city an illusion?"

Gin looked down at himself, his red hands, pitch-black claws, tail, and horns. He looked eerily close to a Tiefling, except his tail had a tiny outline of where scales should be.

"No, My bloodline. It's, um, activated or awakened."

Everyone stared at Talril, waiting for her to answer some unanswered questions.

"Oh, uh, it can be very sudden and painful."

Gin scratched his head.

"You got that right."

Thade stepped forward.

"Now that Jareth is safe, we can really cut loose, but if I cut those things in two, they just multiply, so I'm pretty useless."

He rested his hand on his sword hilt with seriousness Gin hadn't seen before. Talril met Gin's eyes and nodded. Eltynna still looked drained and weak.

"I, on the other hand. Ran out of mana potions. You don't, by chance, have Mana potions lying around?"

Gin nodded. He tried to be prepared for any and all eventualities. He would walk through the market every few days to spot anything new. Amidst it all, Gin bought more potions, but he only had a few mana potions. Eltynna smiled. When he nodded, she realized she was smiling, so she calmed herself to a neutral expression.

"Thank you."

Gin sensed he was missing something but tried to ignore the feeling and move forward. He pretended to walk inside the house and open his spatial compartment. He removed three vials of Mana potion and gave them to Eltynna, who wasted no time sipping the first and placing the other two in her pouch. He suddenly received a notification that Eltynna had sent him a hundred and fifty credits. Gin paused, and Eltynna simply responded.

"We already owe you so much."

"No, you don't. I'm doing this for my friends. My friends dont owe me anything. I have some food in storage. I'll warm something so we can all eat."

The team of adventures sat in silence, eating leftovers from the inn, which Gin put away for later with some of their rations. Thade made a show of looking around.

"Why didn't you tell us you were rich? I mean, look at this place. It's like a little world."

Gin looked up and realized he had yet to see the upstairs.

"It was a gift for helping someone. I didn't, I'm not rich. Just lucky? Not even that."

The rest of the time was spent in silence. Jareth was still asleep, and the team stole glances at him. Someone. Someone placed towels on his forehead and covered him in a blanket, ensuring he was warm and comfortable.

"How do we get out of here?"

"Just say when, and I can let you out."

Cohan, who hadn't spoken and mainly had slept through the day, rose to his feet. Cat ears twitched, and a feline nose sniffed.

"Food!"

He lumbered to the leftovers, filled a plate, and ate silently.

"My poison didn't work on the worms, and if I used stronger poison, I would end up poisoning everyone in such a confined space."

"What about acids? I know they hate fire."

Nhoka folded her arms.

"I can make a kind of chemical close to acid but harmless for people and a few other vials to test."

Eltynna raised a finger.

"I don't think they liked my lights very much at first. That's what saved Jareth."

"Okay, we know what they won't like very much. Fire, light, and blunt force. All we need to do is fight. We can't stay down here forever."

Gin summoned his old mace. Talril pulled two clubs out of her pack and handed one to Thade, who frowned.

"Blades don't work, remember?"

Thade held the heavy weapon, made a face, and walked outside. Gin watched as Nhoka, Thade, and the rest of the team stepped outside of the cabin. Gin saw it in their eyes. Uncertainty, except for Talril, who gave him a look of excitement. She grinned, and her muscles tensed as she looked up.

Gin felt it. They wouldn't want to leave safety if they stay in the Terrarium too long. After all, they all almost died. He closed his eyes and connected to the Terrarium. Another moment and everyone was standing in the cavern. His [Awareness] reached through the walls to search for the worms. He picked up the Terrarium and placed it into a pouch because his old bag had burned.

Without a word, the team got into a formation. Talril and Thade stood beside Gin Nhoka, Eltynna stood in the center, and Cohan guarded the back. The tunnel opening he had made before was gone, and his [path less traveled] pointed up towards the only exit in the dungeon.

"Okay, I have to start digging, and when I start, the worms might notice."

No one said anything. The team of adventurers waited in tense silence as he began. Gin's claws grew, and he began to move upward. While digging, he instinctively changed his claw from something sharp enough to rend bone to wide, shoveling, massive black claws. Then, he activated his tunneling skills to see how they helped. He knew exactly how to cut into the stone to shape it how he wanted.

Then he began to move, imbuing energy into his claws; his speed increased by half. They moved forward at a steady pace of a jog, and it was a tense moment, as nothing happened for an hour and then two.

"Maybe they're scared of us."

Eltynna snorted at Thade and punched him in the arm.

"I don't see how, given that we're the ones who ran away."

Cohan's rough feline voice entered the conversation. He walked on all fours to the back of the group, his eyes moving in all directions.

"It's more likely that when we entered the Teapot, we completely disappeared to their senses, and they spread out to search for us. If you think about it, we had nowhere to run. Either that or they went out to seek other prey. A better plan would be to keep our presence small by returning to the Teapot. I'm sure Gin can move faster without us. If he needs help, we'll help."

Everyone stared at each other, and even Gin had to stop tunneling to stare at Cohan. Eltynna blinked.

"We've all been worrying, but we weren't thinking. That's actually a bit more practical."

Everyone else looked around and agreed. Five minutes later, Gin was back in the tunnel alone. His [path less traveled] skill pointed upwards at an angle. Being alone allowed him to create smaller crawl spaces, which took less time, instead of a human-sized hall to fight worms. Gin found himself swimming through the underground tunnels. The earth moved under his touch like watered-down clay.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

His [Awareness] stretched forward, searching for the worms. Anything he couldn't see through, he simply avoided. He found an opening to the far left of his [Awareness]. Too worried about being cornered, Gin figured it might be the way out, except his [path less traveled] was still pointing upwards. He was already halfway there, and his curiosity got the best of him. Maybe it was a secret room. Which made him frown. Secret places tended to be dangerous.

The first thing Gin noticed was the heat and humidity took so many nutrients out of the soil that the earth became brittle. Gin pushed, and the wall fell apart into a cave with a river filled with crystals of all shapes and sizes. Gin's mouth opened in awe of all the different colors. The downside to the beautiful spectacles was the heat. the lake bubbled and popped with a heat that no one else could withstand. The throbbing headache of warning bells rang repeatedly. It was his [Dangersense].

Steam floated off the lake like a massive hot bowl of acid. The earth crumbled under his arms, and he fell, but on reflex, his tail flicked him upright. Gin landed on massive pieces of crystal, and he looked around. The warning bells were clear he was in danger, so he turned to dig his way out.

White fur shimmered in the crystalline cavern. The monster blended into the glow so well that Gin had to shield his eyes to see it. The size of a airplane It was a mix between a squirrel with massive blue eyes and a wide mouth like a snake. Its movement were see fast that it left after images. Gin’s eyes simply couldn’t keep up with it movements.

“Oh mama, not today.”

Gin stepped back using [edge walker], silenced his step, and lessened his presence, but instead of ignoring him, the creature's head rose and it tail thrashed violently. Suddenly it blurred into the steaming underground lake. Gin's heart stopped.

It was a Camelupie, an ever-freezing elemental creature. Two kinds were mentioned in one of his books: frozen camelupies live in a state of forever freezing and tend to live in burning environments to stay warm, and burning camelupies live in frozen lands to stay cold. Some adventurers called them Eaters. Level seventy threat and above. They can freeze and remove flesh and bone from anything they bite.

Fire would have no effect on the creature, and neither would ice. Gin turned to run back into the tunnel, but the monster's head rose out of the water. It spat a blue glob of liquid over the wall. The wall froze solid but began to melt because of the extreme heating. Gin began sliding into the lake as the ice melted rapidly and evaporated.

Gin looked back as the lake grew close, and he dug his claws into the crystal. He rose to his feet and kept running as the shadow in the lake grew closer. Gin jumped, slamming into the wall, and dug upwards, but the monster didn't give up. The earth trembled as the wall began to freeze inch by inch.

The monster shrieked a high, screaming metallic vibration that he felt in his bones. His body began to slow from the shock waves as his lips and nose began to bleed, and his head felt like it was going to explode like a melon in a microwave.

Gin crawled forward bit by bit as the shockwave he absorbed was converted into energy, and little did he know that the energy healed his wounds. The sound of the monster scratching at the walls urged him forward because if something like that caught him, he had no way of fighting back. Its very blood was said to freeze on contact with air, a named rank threat.

"What the hell is wrong with this tower."

Gin climbed upward, never looking back, only taking short breaks to inform the adventurers about what happened. As he went inside, he created a cavity large enough to hold the Terrarium. His body was drenched in sweat from the encounter with such an incredible beast. After Gin went over what happened, Nhoka sighed.

"We are not climbers. We don’t know much about the Tower other than general things that every adventurer knows. Jareth had his theories, but that is the most any adventurer has if any one thing I know, and that is the towers react to perceived threats. If it causes enough trouble the tower will take care of it."

That was all the adventurer said. Gin was happy to be alive after feeling the kind of energy from the monster. They were all ready to leave the tunnels. He hadn't seen any worms because he was too close to the monster's territory, and based on the shockwave it used to almost kill him, it was obvious what would happen to the worms. Gin didn't know how far underground he traveled but was getting closer to the top.

He climbed for a while longer, and then he felt it. Worms like a wave of flesh waiting. He was tired and angry. He was almost eaten by a giant snake mongoose. He closed his eyes, tapped into his prana energy, and inhaled as his chest glowed with the warmth. He crawled into an opening, and the worms seemed to be sleeping. He opened his mouth, and fire scorched the tunnel walls.

Fire and smoke filled the tunnels, and then something happened, and the fog of smoke began to escape upwards. Gin smiled as he watched the worms burn, and the worms began to fall like flies. he turned and kept digging, but the worms were seemingly endless. His [Awareness] found more pockets of worms, or he would find himself in tunnels with falling rocks and brittle ground, but the more he climbed, the bigger the nest of worms however being alone allowed him to move fast. Gin exited the tunnels into a cave. His [Awareness] washed over the walls and into them, but this time it was different.

There were no worms, but something big was moving through the earth in his direction. The wall trembled, and Gin removed his mace and created a hundred needles. Suddenly, the Terrarium pulsed a request to leave Gin, which was accepted because something might be wrong. Eltynna popped into existence. She smiled, and her finger filled the whole cavern with light.

"I did it!"

Gin blinked so brightly that he forgot he wasn't using his eyes. Instead of waiting to adjust, he wrapped a cloth around them and got ready to fight.

Nhoka and everyone else popped into the cavern.

"We're not going to let you fight on your own."

"We're not that weak."

Cohan grinned with all his canines, and Gin couldn't help but smile back. Stalagmites broke into the cavern, and a black exoskeleton reflected the light as the creature screeched from the bright light and attacked a thousand-leg centipede tunneled into the cavern.

Pincers opened, and everyone scattered, but Gin jumped and came down with all his strength, swinging the mace. The mace crashed into its shell with a small crack. Cohan's claws slashed across the surface with no purchase. Gin lifted his mace and realized that it had lost a few teeth. He slammed the mace down and saw the wall as the monster tunneled into the dirt like a massive train. Gin jumped off, and Cohan disappeared.

Nhoka launched a purple bubble at the giant Centipede. It popped like a balloon, spilling liquid on its exoskeleton with a loud hiss. Thade's blades scraped the monster's exoskeleton, leaving scuffs behind, but he turned and slashed out at such speed and weight.

“[three fold cut]”

Then he sliced at an angle that drew sparks, and its exoskeleton cracked.

The Centipede entered the wall, and Gin sensed when it circled around.

"It's coming back! Everyone come to my position."

And its pincers crashed out of the ground where the team of adventurers once stood. Nhoka filled the air with purple bubbles

Her weapon resembled a large flute. Instead of blowing into the weapon, she spun a lever, leaving bubbles floating still in the air as if they had been paused. The giant Centipede collided with the cloud of bubbles, and the liquid inside the bubbles began to eat into its exoskeleton with a hiss. The Centipede turned and screeched from the unexpected pain.

"Yeah, baby."

Nhoka winked, spinning the weapon like a baton.

The Centipede's momentum stopped as its exoskeleton and flesh liquified. Talril swung her club into the creature's head until it stopped moving. The cavern rumbled, and Gin noticed it didn't have long to fall apart. The repeated impact of the giant Centipede destroyed the cave's foundation.

"We need to get out of here. This whole cavern is coming down."

Nhoka and the others jumped into the Terrarium without hesitating, and Gin began to dig upwards. The worms began pouring from the wall, and the giant Centipede was dead, but his burning claws set the path ablaze. Gin pushed through, enveloped by worms, stopped, dropped, and rolled.

He didn't want to set himself on fire while carrying the Terrarium. He crawled while fighting into the tunnel, and they bit and bit. When he finally had enough space to move, Gin set everything ablaze By using [Fire wave], [burning mist], and [earth spike] to block the tunnel behind him.

He was covered with wound marks, but his skin was still too thick for the worms to completely take him apart. He fought until he fell into a cavern. He looked up, and the lake stretched before him.

"The way out."

The walls rumbled, and a Centipede's massive pincers opened, and like a snake, it coiled to lunge. Gin reached for his mace, and it was gone. He jumped into the water and began to swim, but nothing happened. Through his [Awareness], the Centipede did not follow, and neither did the worms.

"Worms and water aren't exactly friends."

Gin grinned, but something was still wrong. His Danger sense was giving him a slight headache. Gin watched the water for monsters and Giant fish, but nothing was speeding in his direction.

"I gotta get out of here."

Then, he sensed something significant had fallen from the sky so quickly that Gin could not counter it. Giant claws plucked him out of the underground lake like a dead fish. Gin looked up, and giant leathery wings filled the air along with its hairy body. The giant Bat screeched, and the sound rattled his bones.

He clutched his eardrums like an iron fist that squeezed until his eyes bled. Gin gritted his teeth and stuffed his ears with the mud and blood accumulated while digging through the tunnel. The noise fell away as the creature stopped screeching. The giant Bat's claws were wrapped around his torso, but his hands were free. He waited until they were close to the wall and fired a hundred psychic needles into the giant Bat's face.

Surprised and in pain, the giant Bat let go, but Gin grabbed onto its claw and sent one large needle throat. He fell onto the cliff below and watched the giant Bat fall into the lake. The water came alive with giant fish feeding on its carcass. He looked up and saw the moonlit night sky.

He sighed, and he was finally free to continue his journey. He paused with his new friend's team leader and found they might be leaving the Tower. There was only so much a man with one arm and one leg could do. He had a feeling he would have climbed the Tower himself. He and Ada and Junebug, he wasn't that alone.

"I'm not alone."

A slight smile cracked his scowl. After a few minutes, he lay on the forest floor on the thick grass and breathed. He sat down the teacup, and the adventurers stepped out. Eltynna smiled with a sigh.

"We made it!"

"I never thought I would appreciate The open sky as much as I do now. Tunnels and slimy creatures are not as enjoyable as well as anything."

Thade put on his blades and looked around. Cohan grumbled in agreement. Talril began making angels beside Gin in the tall grass.

"Should we make camp or something? We can't just return inside the Terrarium and leave it unguarded, right?"

Nhoka looked around.

"I thought about that after I got up because I'm usually alone. How will I keep myself safe while sleeping in the Terrarium."

Gin walked over to a tree and used his claw to dig a hole in the side of the tree, placed the teacup inside, touched the teacup, and disappeared. The teacup turned invisible, and everyone stared at the missing teacup and Gin. Thade groaned.

"Why did we just stay inside."

Nhoka glared at him and jumped inside, one by one. Everyone jumped inside.

"We can all talk in the morning."

Nhoka nodded. Mentally exhausted from running and fighting all day and night, Gin had no clue how long he had spent underground, nor did he care; he just wanted to sleep. He washed himself off in the river and went to his bed.

Congratulations

[Hunter of the deep level 26]

[tough hide obtained]

[Smoke resistance obtained]

Gin's eyes opened, and the morning light from the opening in the tree lit up the whole Terrarium. His [Awareness] washed over the cabin and surrounding areas, and all adventurers surrounded Jareth.

Laughter filled the center of the living room.

"I'm fine, guys. I can barely feel it. Now tell me what you guys have been up to. Did Nhoka get you guys in trouble again?"

"What! No."

She glared at Thade, and he looked away.

"We've been looking for you all this time. It's been weeks. What happened?"

Jareth's smile faltered.

"Don't worry about it. I'm here now. I'm alive, and you guys are too. For a while, I thought I was the only one who survived, but seeing you here now."

There was silence and sniffling.

"I'm so happy."

Jareth cried, and Gin could no longer listen, so he went for a walk to give them space. Ada's cacoon was still the size of an SUV, and Junebug followed him around like a puppy dog. He ached from various wounds along with his arm and fingers from the digging, but he wasn't tired. He sipped on one of his healing potions and fell into kata-based martial arts. Gin sensed before he saw them.

They had carried Jareth on a stretcher. Everyone had their things, and Gin took a breath. They were leaving. He wanted to be angry, but he looked at Ada's cocoon and realized he wasn't alone because she was always there. He sighed, and it was time to continue climbing the Tower. Gin met them halfway.

"Hey, this is Gin. Gin, this is Jareth."

Despite the missing arm and leg, Jareth smiled as if nothing else mattered.

"Hey, I heard you saved all of us. You must be powerful. I wish I could cross blades with you, but as you can see, I'm only at half-strength."

Talril, Nhoka, and Eltynna all smacked him.

"Ouch, what are you guys trying to finish the job?"

The three girls apologized to Gin.

"Sorry. Jareth refuses to take his injuries seriously."

"I refuse to let it depress me. I know there are regeneration potions and possible artifacts that can fix me up."

Nhoka sighed.

"We've all heard of them, but no one has ever seen one. The cost alone would be thousands of gold at the minimum."

Jareth's smile faltered a bit. He looked Gin in the eyes.

"Thank you for protecting my friends. I don't know what I would do without them or how to repay you."

Gin cut him off.

"You can repay me by staying alive and not going off to do something suicidal. Listen to your friends. They clearly care about you."

Jareth looked around and nodded.

They lingered a bit in an awkward silence. Talril stepped forward.

"We talked about it, and I'm staying. I want to climb the Tower."

The whole team hugged Talril, wishing her luck. Jareth looked like he wanted to say something but hugged her tight instead.

"Find us after you conquer this Tower."

Nhoka slapped Gin on the back with a big grin.

"We have to find the door that leads back to floor one. We have a lot of planning to do. I hope we meet again, and I'm sorry about our deal. I know his family, and I have to see this through."

Gin looked them all in the eye.

"I'll look you guys up when I defeat this Tower. Wait, don't towers grant wishes, too?"

The adventurers looked at Jareth, and he shook his head frantically, growling in anger.

"Don't do it for me. I can't. I'll never accept it. I won't let you give up on your dreams for me."

They already had that argument by the look on their faces. Gin watched them leave and wished he had tried to convince them to climb with him, but he had too much pride; it would have felt like he was begging.

There was one problem: Talril stood beside him.

"Are you sure about this?"

"I told them I had to get stronger and that climbing this Tower wasn't for me. My people are nomadic because they're not strong enough to make a home for themselves. When our village gets raided by pirates, we move; when our village gets attacked by bandits, we move. I left the village to become stronger and strong enough to claim our land. Going back isn't really an option. We've already said our goodbyes."

Gin stared at where the group once stood.

"I see. Well, are you climbing on your own or?"

She hesitated.

"If you want me, I'd like to join you. Your bloodline is of ancient water, right? I can sense it."

Gin smiled

"What level are you?"

"I'm a level 22 brawler."

"What about the quest you got to the city?"

"Oh, it's complete for jumping into a dangerous place to save a friend. I still haven't reached level 30; the door to level 5 will not appear until then, and I will get the rewards for the quest."

She stared at Gin, waiting for a response.

"I still have to complete the quest. I have 4/5. I did the same thing you did, so I don't get why mine is incomplete."

"Maybe it's because you've done the same thing before. You help people, so it's unsurprising that the Tower seems to know you're a good person."

She grinned with a mouth full of sharp teeth and innocent admiration. Gin blushed and looked away.

"Well, we're going to grind in the forest until we reach level 30."

Gin opened his spatial compartment with his key and pulled out his needle and wire.

"What is that?"

"This is my weapon. I should give it a proper name."

Gin thought for a few moments.

"My enemy's Omen."

Talril stared at the weapon and nodded.

"Looks like a thread and a needle."

"You ready?"

She nodded, then paused.

"What's the plan? What type of monster are we hunting? You're not planning to wander the forest looking for trouble, right?"

Gin grinned.

"Why not? The sky is bright, and the forest isn't longer greener."