Chapter 1133
Barely holding on to his corporeal form was the limit of what Abder could do when subjected to Moturn’s true environment.
Which… was actually pretty amazing already, wasn’t it? He wasn’t instantly vaporized or crushed. It was small comfort, but something. The only question was how he could survive. He couldn’t break through the barrier- and even if he did the damage to the city would be significant. There were a few points where it was meant to be passed through, but Abder didn’t know where they were. He could walk around the barrier but that was far too casual… and some were meant to be entered in flight from New Ibbore.
Crushing pressure and relentless heat decided Abder’s actions for him. He needed to do something, so he did it. He didn’t exactly have a lot of sources for advanced body tempering to draw from, so when he thought about his mentors in that field his thoughts immediately moved to the one that didn’t seem to overthink things.
He pushed himself away from the barrier, barely felt through the storm even for all of its power, and then struck downward. He probably should have had a pick or at least a hammer to attempt what he did, but his strength was enough… barely. Compressed rock cracked beneath him, and he reached for a chunk. His uncovered ears screamed at him as his fingertips compressed around the meter wide piece, wrangling it out.
Dropping into a small hole wasn’t really any better, but this was only step one. The edges were rough, and he wanted to do better. It didn’t need to be aesthetically pleasing, but he needed the stone to fit out of the opening he’d already made and he couldn’t be fiddling with rubble.
Lifting hundreds of kilograms with a poor grip would already be difficult enough. When that rock was hot enough to be molten and only retained its solidity due to massive pressure, it was even more difficult. It sure felt good when he managed it, though.
Piece after piece, he broke away the ground. He tried to build a shelter atop his little hole, but his continued need to expel what he removed around him meant that was a foolish plan. He soon realized that using his fingers to carve out the edges he wanted was better, since he didn’t have any particular experience with mining. Still, Durff’s vigorous videos to him- or really anyone who would listen since he probably didn’t even know Abder existed- had inspired him to action.
He dug out an overhang which didn’t really make him less hot or reduce the crushing pressure, but at least his proto-tunnel made him feel assured he wasn’t going to be blown away. His trained density was probably the only thing that had gotten him that far.
He half dug, half mined down at an angle. Eventually he had to widen his tunnel so he could turn around a block or vaguely block shaped thing. The deeper he got, the less hot it was. The pressure remained, but as long as he kept his eyes closed and his lips pressed tight… well, he still had problems with his nostrils and ears, but just because his lungs burned with each breath didn’t mean he was going to give up. It wasn’t much worse than it had felt to intensely train when he first started.