The monster let out a final, bone-chilling roar toward the pit before its heavy footsteps gradually faded into the distance.
Ash slumped against the cold earth, a shaky breath of relief escaping his lungs.
If that predator had decided to force its way down, he would have been nothing more than cornered prey.
Now that the immediate threat was gone, the adrenaline began to ebb, replaced by a wave of agonizing reality.
His body was a map of trauma, covered in jagged lacerations.
The worst of it was his left shoulder—a gruesome hole, the size of a finger, had been torn clean through his flesh.
Blood pulsed from the wound in a rhythmic, crimson flow.
He knew he should have been unconscious by now.
Only the potent dregs of the enhancement elixir kept his heart beating and his mind anchored to reality.
Still, the sheer intensity of the pain sent sparks of dizziness across his vision, accompanied by a hollow surge of nausea.
Gritting his teeth, Ash fought the urge to vomit. With trembling hands, he tore a strip of fabric from his right trouser leg.
His breath came in ragged gasps—"Hah... hah... hah..."—as he wound the makeshift bandage tight, cinching it until the cloth bit into the wound to stifle the bleeding.
He sat there in the suffocating silence, waiting for his breath to stabilize.
Every muscle screamed in protest, locked in a state of absolute exhaustion.
Then, it hit him.
Thump-thump.
His heart suddenly hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird.
A searing heat erupted from his core, turning his sweat into a cold, stinging film. The dull ache of his injuries sharpened into white-hot needles.
Ash collapsed onto the dirt, gasping for oxygen that felt too thin to breathe.
'What is happening? Is this the backlash? Has the elixir finally run dry?'
"Kuh..." He groaned, curling into a ball as waves of fatigue and neurological fire washed over him. He was a prisoner in his own collapsing vessel.
...
Time lost its meaning in the dark.
Eventually, the fiery torment receded, leaving behind a dull, manageable throb.
Ash lay motionless. It wasn't a choice; his limbs felt like leaden weights, unresponsive to his will. Only after several minutes did his nerves slowly reconnect.
"Ugh..."
He pushed himself up into a sitting position, his joints creaking.
Reaching into his spatial bag, he pulled out a bottle of water and downed it in a single, desperate gulp.
The cool liquid brought a flicker of life back to his parched throat.
He looked up. The hole he had fallen through was nothing but a speck of impenetrable blackness.
The predator might still be up there, haunting the night.
'The opening is smaller than I thought,' Ash mused, his mind turning to the giant rats and the two Aberrations he had encountered.
'How did they crawl through here?'
Then, a realization dawned on him. After burying the villagers, Alberto must have returned to narrow this passage, leaving just enough room for a human but too little for anything larger.
He had predicted that if Ash survived, he would eventually seek out this path.
A faint, weary smile touched Ash's lips.
'Thank you, Alberto. You've saved me once again.'
He surveyed his surroundings. He was at the bottom of a vertical shaft, roughly thirty meters deep.
Without the elixir's reinforcement, his legs would have shattered upon impact.
Down here, the darkness was absolute, thick enough to feel heavy against his skin.
'Hah... darkness again. It seems fate and I have a shared history with the shadows.'
With no way to climb back up and a monster waiting above, there was only one direction: forward.
Using the silver spear as a crutch, Ash began to limp into the unknown.
The earthen path stretched longer than expected, descending deeper into the crust of the world.
Even without sight, he could feel the air changing—the walls were receding, the cramped tunnel blooming into a cavernous passage.
Based on the incline, he estimated he was now more than a hundred meters below the surface.
He prayed he wouldn't stumble into a nest of giant rats or something far worse.
While his body felt lighter as the pain dulled, his left shoulder remained a useless weight.
However, he noticed a lingering change. Even without the active surge of the elixir, he felt... different.
His night vision had sharpened, his intuition hummed with a low frequency, and his endurance had found a new floor.
It was perhaps a tenth of the elixir's power, but it was permanent. A small evolution born from surviving the brink.
Soon, he reached a fork in the road—three identical paths diverging into the gloom.
'Which one?' There were no signs, no tracks. He closed his eyes, letting his sharpened instincts take the lead.
He chose the center path.
A short walk led to another junction, this time with seven paths. Without hesitation, he moved forward again.
When he reached a third intersection with over ten openings, the puzzle clicked into place.
'This is the hive. The rats created these tunnels as a subterranean highway. The side paths likely just lead to more mazes. I just need to keep going straight.'
He pressed on, his thoughts drifting toward his goal.
'How long have I been descending? I hope the Core is at the end of this.'
In a way, his solitude was a blessing.
Had any villagers survived, his mission would have been clouded by suspicion and questions.
Only a Chosen with the Key Mark could perceive a Core; to a native or a monster, it was invisible—a ghost in the machine of reality.
It was a failsafe of the world, ensuring the heart of a "Place" couldn't be accidentally consumed or hidden away.
To distract himself from the exhaustion, he thought about home.
'If I make it back to Earth, the first thing I'll do is sleep. I've been awake for over twenty-four hours... if not for the pain and the medicine, I would have collapsed long ago.'
Lost in thought, his next step met nothing but empty air. Ash recoiled instantly, his heart leaping into his throat.
'What—? The path... it just ends.'
Before him lay a precipice. His enhanced vision could see nothing but an infinite void.
He felt along the jagged walls of the tunnel, searching for a way down, until his fingers brushed against cold metal.
'A lever?'
He gripped the handle and pulled.
Click.
Whirr— Whoosh!
A series of ignitions erupted along the cavern walls, following the hidden conduits of a long-dormant system.
Lines of fire raced upward, spiraling toward the ceiling. Then, with a deafening roar of combustion, a massive orb of fire—a miniature sun—ignited in the center of the vault.
The blinding radiance flooded the abyss, and Ash froze.
"Unbelievable..." he whispered, his voice trembling.
Stretching out beneath him, bathed in the artificial sunlight, lay the silent, skeletal ruins of a gargantuan subterranean city.