Explorer of Edregon

Vin didn’t even look at the notification that he’d received experience for discovering a new dungeon, his focus solely on putting as much distance between him and the angry rankers chasing after him. Even if that spear wielder wasn’t interested in attacking him for some reason, which was concerning for a whole host of other reasons, there was still the woman who had nearly cut him in half and the two he’d temporarily stopped with his spell combination. He had no doubt the warriors had enough strength to fight their way out of Firm Water, however, which meant he needed to move, and fast. The good news was that the dungeon quickly revealed itself to be an excellent method of throwing off his pursuers.

As it was filled to the brim with screeching monsters.

Giant bats the size of dogs with razor-sharp teeth and claws descended from the ceiling as he ran, attempting to rake their claws across his head or latch onto his shoulders. It was a living maelstrom of leathery flesh as dozens of the freaky monsters all swarmed about together, and Vin grit his teeth as he plowed straight through. Letting his Aqua Sphere drop, he quickly cast Dimensional Sheath and retrieved the petrified elderwood door he’d snatched up from Alka’s home town, holding it over his head like a makeshift shield as he ran. The door ended up working even better than he’d hoped, as the bats seemed hellbent on attacking from directly above instead of the side, and he heard thud after thud as they tried and failed to strike through the seemingly impenetrable wood.

A quick glance over his shoulder revealed the woman with Speed Slash snarling as she fought her way after him through the thick storm of monsters. They weren’t enough to stop her entirely, but they were slowing her down, which was all Vin needed. He could feel the exact location of the entrance to the Underside, and it wasn’t far. He just needed to make it to the corridor and he’d be home free.

Unless the rankers had the Dungeoneering skill as well, in which case things were about to get ugly.

Vin tried to put the worst-case scenario out of his mind as an errant claw squeezed past the door and slashed him across the forehead, narrowly missing his eye. He didn’t have the time to be distracted, it was quite literally do or die.

“Redirect Gravity!” he grunted, clearing out a portion of the cave directly in front of him and causing a fresh round of screeches as a good chunk of the bat monsters suddenly found themselves flying upside down and began freaking out. Even the bats’ screeches seemed to be some sort of attack, as he stumbled and nearly fell to his knees when his mind was hit by so many all at once.

Total Resistance increased to lvl 18! 3,600 exp gained.

Barely managing to stay on his feet, he nearly forgot to cancel his spell before running into his zone of altered gravity. Thankfully, rather than sending himself falling up toward the ceiling as well, he instead sprinted through the space he’d cleared, heading deeper into the cave system. As he ran, more and more claws managed to sneak past the door and slice into his face, arms, and upper torso, but he ignored them entirely, his focus purely on making it to the ever-approaching corridor.

Sensing a chill go down his spine, he risked another glance behind him, and his heart nearly stopped at what he saw.

The spear-wielding ranker who had allowed him to run past was leisurely walking after him, his spear twirling and thrusting about so fast Vin could barely even see the weapon. It was only the divebombing monsters falling out of the air one after another that revealed how practically every strike from his weapon struck a lethal blow. Yet even through his terrifying display of martial might, the ranker’s eyes never once left Vin as he carefully watched him.

Waiting for something.

Oh crap… He’s waiting to see what I do! Vin realized with a start. Ambushing a fort and running straight into a dungeon rather than trying to make a break for the edge of the fragment… If he sees me vanish in front of him, he’ll know that dungeons are more than they seem!

Vin swore as he turned and threw himself down one of the nearby tunnels, moving away from the location of the corridor he needed to reach as he wracked his brain. If he unintentionally revealed the Dungeoneering skill and the existence of the Underside to the rankers, he might very well end up handing them the key to breaking out of all of the natural barriers that were keeping them trapped. Logically, he knew it shouldn’t matter, as a Dimensional Mage was required to tear through the Underside barriers into rooms reflecting fragments one hadn’t personally visited before, but he didn’t want to risk it. He still didn’t know what happened when one hit Dungeoneering levels 15 or 20. If those benchmarks granted access to the Underside in its entirety…

The rankers could lead a full-scale assault on Terra directly, bypassing any annoying fragments along the way.

Alright, I need to make it to the Underside entrance, while also throwing off the spear-wielder long enough that he doesn’t see what happens to me, Vin thought as he ran down the tunnel. Thankfully, the bats weren’t nearly as bad in the tunnels as they were in the main section of the cave, but that just meant it would be easier for them to follow him as well.

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Though that was at least one thing he could fix.

“Stone Wall! Stone Wall!” he began rapidly casting as he ran, summoning dense wall after dense wall of stone behind him. A spear didn’t exactly seem like the best weapon for breaking through solid rock, so he could only hope it would be enough. A moment later, he came across a three-way fork in the tunnel, and he had a moment of inspiration. Turning down the tunnel that led left toward the Underside entrance, he quickly cast one more Stone Wall to poorly seal off the tunnel that went right instead. With any luck, the rankers would think he went that direction, and he sprinted away before his own appearance could ruin his plan.

Let’s just hope I’m not currently bleeding all over the place, he thought, gritting his teeth as he ran. His upper body was covered in minor gashes at this point, and the blood trickling down from the cut on his forehead had forced him to shut his right eye, but there was nothing he could do about that at the moment. His mana had barely recovered after all the rapid casting required to escape the keep, and it was running dangerously low at the moment.

The tunnel he was following twisted and turned, and Vin began breathing heavily as he got closer and closer to his destination. He’d raised his strength attribute to be about the normal, peak human limit back on Earth, but he was functionally carrying a dense slap of petrified elderwood over his head, which wasn’t exactly the lightest material. Not to mention the heavy monsters slamming into the door every few seconds shook his already weakened arms and threatened to cause them to give out. Already the blue light emanating from his golem arm was beginning to flicker, and he could actually feel it growing weaker and preparing to fail before his regular one. Just as the last of the blue light flickered and vanished, and his left arm dropped to his side, he saw it.

The stone frame standing in the center of the cave tunnel, just waiting for someone with Dungeoneering to get close and activate it.

Letting out a cry of relief, he cast Dimensional Sheath and stored the door just as it began falling, unable to be held up with merely the flagging strength of his right arm. That gave the last few monsters flying overhead free parting shots at him as he made a mad dash for the finish, but he didn’t care. Trusting in his Survivor title and his own high endurance, Vin ignored the sensation of teeth breaking skin and claws slamming into his back as he lunged for the stone frame.

Rolling through the portal in a heap and landing in the seemingly endless corridor free of monsters.

Suddenly free of teeth and claws, he simply lay there for a moment, his breathing coming in harsh gasps as he finally realized just how bad a shape he was in. A quick glance down at his torso shocked him to his core, as he realized his makeshift shield hadn’t been quite as effective as he’d first thought. It has managed to protect his head for the most part, but his chest and presumably back based on the pain and warmth seeping across it had been torn to shreds.

I think… I think my Survivor title might be the only reason I haven’t bled out yet…

Forcing himself to his feet, he numbly glanced over at the shrieking bats that were swarming just on the other side of the stone frame. It certainly seemed as though they could still see him, but thankfully, they appeared trapped in their own dungeon, or at least unable to come into the corridor connected to the Underside.

But they were likely to give away where he’d gone if he didn’t move.

The stone frame and corridor won’t vanish until I’m in the Underside… he thought weakly, his mind feeling like it was struggling to string two words together. Need to… move…

He wasn’t out of the clear just yet, as if the spear wielder figured out he’d been duped and went down the correct tunnel, there would be a magical stone frame waiting for him unless Vin managed to get to the Underside before then. With an impressive act of will, he commanded one foot to step forward, followed by another, and then another.

The corridor swam before his eyes as he walked, and he devoted the very last dregs of his mana to a broad Renewal spell, sweeping the life mana over the entire top half of his body. He was covered in so many injuries and so much blood he couldn’t even tell where to focus the magic. Unfortunately, he officially ran out of mana before making so much as a dent, and he chuckled to himself as he continued stumbling down the corridor.

Could really use… one of Bill’s… potions, right about now…

As he walked, a completely random thought flitted through his brain, and he raised a shaking hand to his chest, patting around until he found a lump within one of the miraculously intact pockets.

“Huh…” he muttered, squeezing the shape and confirming his suspicion. “Still got… the corn…”

Despite the living blender he’d just run through, somehow, one of the chunks of weirdly buttery corn he’d stolen from the fragment remained with him. For some reason, Vin found this utterly hilarious, and he found himself giggling as his right hand fell uselessly to his side to match his inert left one. His entire torso was slowly going cold, yet even still, he forced one foot to step after the other.

I think… I might be dying.

The thought should have been more concerning than it was, but Vin simply couldn’t bring himself to care all that much at the moment. Everything was so cold, and the exit to the corridor still so far away, that right now his entire focus was on nothing more than walking. He’d had enough near scrapes throughout the last few months on Edregon that he was no stranger to dangling over the precipice of death, and he knew by now there was no sense in counting himself out until the very end.

As if to prove his thinking right, Vin blinked as he realized he’d actually done it. All of a sudden he found himself standing in the Underside, in the dead center of the room connected to the rankers’ fragment up above. The blood-filled tunnel stretching back from the stone frame behind him to the rankers’ dungeon died as he stepped away, and he let out a shaky cheer that was more like a wavering croak.

“Take… that!” he managed, before turning and trying to pick out the right direction toward Terra. Whatever dimensional shenanigans were causing the massive empty room to swirl and darken before him were more than a little distracting, and he tried to shrug it off. “Just… have to…”

Those were the last words he managed before his beaten and battered body finally gave out, and Vin collapsed to the floor in a puddle of his own blood.